It is 5:30 p.m. on Thursday, November 18th, and welcome to the workshop of the Hopkins School Board. We are waiting on two of our board colleagues, Clerk Thompson and Director Roer, who are just running a little bit late and should be here momentarily. Um, but in the um interest of time, which we always seem to be short of these days, I'm going to go ahead and get started um with our first item on the agenda, which I believe is the language access plan. So, I will turn it over to Dr. Mary Perry Reed and invite um our >> illustrious presenters. >> Yes, there we go. [laughter] >> Thank you for being here tonight. >> Okay. Okay. Okay. Well, good evening, Chair Andre and board members, community members, colleagues in the audience. So, yes, our first agenda item is language access plan. And according to Minnesota statute 123B.32, school districts in Minnesota are required to adopt a language access plan by the 2526 school year. That's this year. And this plan needs to detail how we will provide language assistance such as trained interpreters to students and families who communicate in a heritage language other than English. And so, um, my colleagues have been working on the elements of this plan and looking at other models, um, in the metro area for what how other districts are moving forward with their language access plans. And we wanted to provide you with an update for where we're at. So, I will introduce Dr. Dr. Annle and Director Jolene Guldady who will provide you with an update and then we'll take your questions and feedback. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Hi, good evening board members. Good to see you tonight. Um Jolene and I are here to just share the work that we've done so far on the Hopkins language access plan. So, as Dr. Mary Perryi Reid mentioned um this is uh legislated as a plan that all districts have to produce and when uh we looked at sort of the components of the plan really for us the work has been just kind of gathering the components and putting them into a document uh because we had um really all of the structures in place um that you'll see and I think you have access to a draft of the plan itself and then um Jelina And I've just made a couple of slides to just walk through a couple of highlights. So again, um, access, language access matters, um, because we want our community and all of our students to be able to fully engage in schools. And so this plan really, um, outlines what language services look like for students, but also the interpreting and translation services that we use as a district. So some of the core components of the plan do include uh language identification. So you will see in the plan something called the LE. That's the um it's well it's basically it's the plan that guides our ELE programming um language instruction education plan. Um, and that gets updated each year in coordination with myself and Markel Rios, our multilingual coordinator, talks about how parents or excuse me, how um, upon enrollment students are identified as potentials for EL services and then the steps that we go through for that. Um and then there are also we also outline in the plan the supports for families and students including our English language development or ELD programming um multilingual program support oversight that again that's um Markell and also what we do for students along the way. So things like um annual assessment, uh fa family supports, uh bilingual seals, which is a part of our um language access plan and really to recognize um all of the linguistics uh the linguistic assets that our students bring with them. Um you will also see that um we have outlined the work and role of our student success cultural liaison and there are directions for accessing interpretation services. We are currently under contract with an organization called weaving cultures and they provide inperson phone um and video remote interpreting. We also use them sometimes for written translations. So, the plan is a work in progress. Again, what you're looking at is our kind of our first draft. Um, we will be finalizing that I think over really the next couple of weeks. Um, it's it's it's pretty um complete as it is. Um, and then we will uh Jolene and I in conjunction with technology because um our technology systems also obviously support um messaging and things like that in multiple languages. We will continue to review the plan and provide an update on the plan every two years as required um to the board and um you know continuing to gather input both from our um internal staff and external community members about the quality of the services that are being provided not just our English language development plan but also um the quality of our our interpreting and translation services as well so we can continually ually look to um improve that experience for our families. >> Yep, that's the last slide. Thank you. Okay. [laughter] >> Um well, thank you for presenting and for being here tonight and the work that went into this report. Um any of my board colleagues have any questions or are you taking questions? >> We can take some questions. Thank you. or comments or any feedback too. Of course, >> Chair Andre. >> Yes. >> Yes. Hello. Uh so thanks for the uh the plan here. I think it's great. Um I guess a question and I think you maybe alluded to it. Uh you'll do uh a report every two years on outcome is that on outcomes like how efficacy and things like that or >> um that's a good question. I think the plan we're required to update and keep the plan maintained every two years. Now that being said, [clears throat] there are components of the plan that we do continuously monitor. So we are constantly reviewing uh outcome data on our English learners. For example, um we're very interested in sort of the experiences um and feedback that we get in relation to our translation and interpreting services. Um and we are really carefully looking at that and considering whether the contract that we're in is the best contract for us or if we need to uh look for other providers. Um and then in terms of some of the other like our um student success liaison, we do closely monitor the number of contacts they're having with students and families and some of those things. So we do as I was saying the components of this plan existed in our district already. this just kind of packages them in a different way and so each of the areas is monitored um in separate ways. >> Okay. And just a final thought is and we do the quarterly uh metrics uh and so it might be good and in a future state not now obviously >> uh to weave some of this in just to you know pick a few of the important metrics for this ELLL and uh uh because we're I'm interested in how well we're doing supporting our English learners. Absolutely. And I [clears throat] think um forgive me for not having our data deck totally memorized. It's mostly here, but there [snorts] I think if you look at the October data presentation or September, I think it was September, um we do have some slides uh that show outcome data of the access assessment. So access is the annual English learner um assessment. And so I can send those to um if board members would like to see them, but I think it's in that data deck. >> Okay. Thank you, >> Chair Andre. >> Yes. >> Well, I was really excited to see this on the agenda for tonight. Um, you know, as the linguistic and cultural diversity of our district has grown and evolved over the years, our model has had to kind of shift and at times that has felt a bit disjointed because historically um, translation and interpreting and culturally leaison lived in community ed and then we kind of moved it out of there and then COVID was a thing. Um, and then as we came out of COVID kind of trying to figure out the best model end. Um, and I think you expressed it perfectly, Director, that this packages it in a way that's much easier for um, our internal to the district staff to understand um, and our our community members and families and caregivers. I'm wondering if you could talk a little bit more about kind of how we're communicating these different services to caregivers um and so that they know how to access it and then kind of like follow up to that um is more of an idea um that it would be really helpful to see some data around um how many people are accessing the services and which languages are being accessed most frequently that type of thing too obviously at a future date. So, but I'm curious about that communications piece. >> Yeah. Um, well, you can talk a little bit about what we've got on our website right now. >> Sure. >> Um, so I mean, uh, how we identify families is often through, well, at least the channels that I'm aware of is through the enrollment office is probably the most, um, effective because we're able they're they are able to self- select into the language that they're um, hoping to be communicated in. Um, I think we're still refining how we're working with our existing families that maybe have a flag but, you know, don't necessarily want a flag. Um, what we do in um, at least for like our Blackboard communications. So, that would be communications that come out districtwide um, or even schools are trained to to do this. We have um, automatic translations in Somali and Mong and in Spanish, but we also send it to those families in English first and then um, under that is um, the the translated language. So if they're, you know, like not really wanting to, I mean, a lot of um feedback we have received is um is yes, English isn't my first language, but I also don't necessarily know how to read Somali either. So please don't send me a bunch of communications in that and I can read English. So we try to set it up so um it's not you have the access, but also it is not like it's an English. Yeah, we're not assuming. Yep. Um and then also um because of AI and other things um automatic translations are easier and easier to have. Our website can be translated into any language um pretty easily including our enrollment forms and all of our other forms. We try not to use PDFs at all for that reason. Um and then um our more newsletters which our principles primarily use can be translated into any language as well. And I think this plan once we kind of finalize it, this can also exist on our website. And then in terms of um how teachers access the interpretation services, that information gets shared at the beginning of the year and then often again around conference time when folks are setting up those conferences and things like that. >> Thank you. >> Thank you. Um I just had a few questions about um well I'll just go through if that's okay. Um so one of the things that I um was wondering if we had thought about as far as the access plan is concerned is making sure that we're being inclusive of ASL and also augmented communication. I know not only um do our students use that but also um community members. So, how is that being addressed in this? >> Yeah, it's it's a missing part right now. Um, we do have contracts with ASL interpreting services that we use. Um, and it's not in our plan quite yet. And in terms of the augmented um, communication, I'm not sure about that part. >> I'm not sure either. >> Okay. >> Yeah, we'll get I think we might need to get back to you on that piece. >> Is Is there a timeline at all? >> Yeah, I we're hoping to finalize this. I would say before winter break so that we can have all of the um components ready and then we can um send out kind of the finalized version. >> Great. >> Thank you. Um and then I'm also wondering I know um Director Goldotti you mentioned AI. Um so what kind of guidelines are there for interpretive services in the district? I know in other districts there is the um requirement that AI is not used for translation. So just wondering any thoughts about that? How are we addressing that issue here in Hopkins? Well, I would say that for world languages like um Somali or Mong AI like like um Google translate is pretty much so what anything is is going to be using um a algorithm similar to that or a language translation similar to that. Um, for Spanish it can be very effective. For more, um, common languages, um, that aren't, you know, just a totally different style than English. Um, I think it can be pretty effective, but for others, I would say that not so much. Um, I don't know that there's any specific guidelines. What I can say is that um a lot of the things that we translate is I mean it is great that we do that but um I think it's also important like when we are reaching out to families we are doing like phone calls and and because you can um you might have more of an audio understanding than um than maybe a literacy understanding. So just being able to reach out in many languages or or many different um types of ways um to reduce barriers. But I'm not sure if we have guidelines around that of what we use and what we don't use that um I think um maybe you would know. I'm not I'm not sure. >> Well, I know anecdotally when staff ask questions about that, we advise them that you typically can use AI to help with the translation, but you always have to have somebody who actually uses the language uh with high proficiency review it before you would ever send out a message. Um, I I don't believe our staff are using it that widely. Most of our staff who send messages out in add in languages in addition to English are speakers of that language. I'm thinking a lot about our immersion families. Um, so, but we definitely could look at including some guidelines and recommendations in this plan for what is acceptable and what's not acceptable. >> That would be great. [clears throat] I think staff would appreciate having that to fall back on to reference when they're when they're looking at >> um how to make um school more accessible to families. >> And then um one of the things too that I um saw in another access plan was um kind of guidelines about not using students as interpreters. >> Yes, >> I would love to see that be in the Hopkins plan. I think that is very respectful of their role. um in the district and that we are adults coming together to serve them and not the other way around. >> Yeah, I I agree with you and I again that's sort of some anecdotal advice that we give um our staff during conferences and things like that, but I agree putting it in writing sort of codifies it in a in a different way. So, I appreciate that feedback. >> Thank you. Um and you did mention um director about the um about immersion programs. So I was wondering is there um some way like I imagine in my in my brain that there is a a lot of intersections between this language access plan and also our immersion programming and is there a way we can maybe bring that into this document or do we feel like that's something separate? I think it could be I mean I you know the the sort of the guidance of the components of the plan um like most things a lot of it is under local control. So I think we can really build it to [clears throat] include all of the different uh language pathways and things that we have in Hopkins. So I think we could definitely include you know what our immersion pathways look like. We've got some really nice graphics that show how students metriculate through that programming. >> That'd be great. I'd like to see that too. Thank you. >> Absolutely. And then just one more and this is for communications. I know it says at the end that um we gather feedback from families and staff through communication tools. Um and just wondering um how do we do that within this language access plan and what does that look like? Like what how are we gathering that feedback? Is it, you know, multilingual, rich, many different ways to access like what are the on-ramps to that sort of feedback? I think the plan itself once it's embedded in the website, we'll work with your team to make sure that it's compliant and then it can be translated um on our website. But I do think [clears throat] just speaking from the teaching and learning side of things, we have struggled and it came up in ESAC even again this year, we have struggled to engage some of our multilingual families with some of the really typical structures that we use in a school district. Um I know uh director Fischer, former director of community ed and I try experimented for a few years of going and joining different parent groups or going to school-based meetings and we had some some success with that. But I I think that's always a huge area of growth for us as a system is to really figure out um what are the the most um effective and respectful ways to communicate with all of our family members. And it's often um it's often more asking questions than sort of expecting folks to conform to what we just do as a typical school for a typical district. >> Yeah. Uh, and just wondering if the marketing and communications team has any sort of plans to be a part of this language access plan and how are we going to um gather that feedback and and make sure that it's accessible. >> Well, I think that we'll be working with an um on on that. I don't um I I think that as it relates to the plan um that's a step that I think we need to look at. I mean I would agree we um we don't see in the marketing and communication space we have tried a variety of things um to to reach out to more families and generally what works for um you know I'll just say like the um you know our white affluent families which you know that would be print that would be social media that would be messages from the schools that doesn't always engage our families our multilingual families and we have tried a variety of things I think what has been the most successful is working through our cultural liaison because there is a community and a trust with the community and that's where we've seen the most participation and so like in the enrollment process we have worked in the past with our Somali liaison to um have them help us or you know we work together to organize like an enrollment night because the enrollment process just in general can be there's um you know I always joke that like everybody should have to go through our enrollment process because there is and it's kind of not a joke because there's there is so much paperwork and there are so many questions and it can be it just can be a lot of what we're required to ask families and so having um somebody who speaks the language who is trusted who um has some connection to the community has been um I guess maybe the the best success we have seen in in being able to connect and you know when we've look at surveys like our transportation response survey things that we needed a response to that that's what we leaned out that's that's who we leaned on to help us get the work done and that's how we got it done. So I would say that's probably um the first and most important lever in my experience um to look at. >> So that's going to be part of the communications and marketing plan going forward. >> Well, I mean as I don't know if we're are you talking about in relation to this plan? Are you talking about in relation to our communication and marketing plan? because that those are two different those are already parts of our plan where we are reaching out and having you know like reaching out with our liaison to help the enrollment process. Those things are already in in place. >> So that's part of how we realize the feedback that we're gathering through communication tools that is listed in this plan. It's part of the marketing and communications plan. That's the question I'm asking. I don't think officially. Um, so I think like I would want to connect to make sure that that is how we'd want to gather data about this plan. I don't think we're necessarily connecting it to this plan. So I'm just saying that those are things that we've noticed that have worked. Um, and and could be things that we lean on in in this plan, a similar structure, if that makes sense. I don't know if we fully know what, you know, like exactly yet how we're going to get that feedback in the in the in the way where we're going to get the result we want, which is engagement. >> Okay. We're um I'm wondering if there's a way for us to look at maybe five to seven other district exemplars to see kind of where their because I imagine it's a cross departmental function and where their plans live and what um who owns the different aspects of the plan. Is that that's part of the question that you're asking? >> Yeah. Yeah. And just >> like who executes the plan? >> And not just that, but like how how are we all in the district making sure that we are not only contributing to this plan, but making sure that we are enacting it with fidelity and also how does that inform the work that each department is doing? Because this is >> like you said interdisciplinary and across all disciplines. Like this is how our families >> [clears throat] >> access information about our district and fully engage. And so I would imagine in particular that marketing and communications, this would be like your plan because that's the job of communications is to communicate with our families in our community. So hoping that the outcome of this will be that there will be a much more strategic way that we ensure that our families have access regardless of language. And I also [snorts] just want to keep coming back. It's not just about multilingual families. It's about families who communicate in all different ways. We need to be aware of that and it needs to be part of in particular I think at base level part of our communications plan. So thank you. >> Yeah. I'm continually getting I think that for a long time I I feel like throughout my career we've grappled with how how do we authentically engage with our um communities who have a heritage language other than English and what are the most effective like pathways to just connect, share information, engage in a way that they would say yes, you've done good work. Right? >> So, we just I think we'll have to [clears throat] continue leaning into that to identify what what that can look like as we move forward because we we do struggle. I know all districts do >> and I think this >> this um having this plan is a way to do that to be really thoughtful about it >> moving forward. >> So, thank you. I appreciate this. >> Any other comments or questions? Thank you. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Thank you both. >> That takes us to our next um topic of discussion, our US solar update. I will invite our new um director of buildings and grounds up to the table and turn it over to Dr. Mary Perry Reid. Thank you, Chair Andre. Well, um, welcome to the table, Gino. And what we're going to talk about this evening is just an overview of, um, our utilities costs and also cost savings >> here in Hopkins. And I know that Minnesota school districts have energy costs that maybe are second only to payroll. I feel like they're very, very high. and there are ways to reduce and be more efficient, especially with solar programs. So, I'm really excited um to have our school board hear this update and we'll give you a chance to ask questions and give feedback. And thank you, Gino, for all the work that you've um done, not only to put together this presentation, but also to assess the landscape that we have here in Hopkins and identify additional opportunities for efficiencies such as lowering temperature, [laughter] lowering temperatures throughout the the buildings and spaces, which we've only received three complaints. Is that correct? >> Um, yeah, I think that's correct. That's it's very low. >> Formerly complaints to my email. Yes. Now in the break room, I'm not sure we can count those, but [laughter] I'm sure there's a little more. >> Um, good evening and thanks for having me. Um, we're going to discuss utilities tonight. Um, if we go to the second slide here, we're going to look at our energy partners. So our energy partners um for gas we partner with center uh center energy um center point sorry energy and world connect electricity is US solar that's our community solar gardens um C2 is our on-site solar and then Excel Energy Center or I wish it was called XL Energy Center I mixed that up XL Energy um water is Golden Valley uh Minnetonka and Hopkins um community solar garden basics. So, this is kind of just basically understanding um where s solar gardens come from, how it started, and the benefits. So, it helps Minnesota meet clean energy goals and increases access to savings and energy costs. Um it feeds clean energy into the electric grid, and then Excel Energy uh users can join and save on electricity costs um with a discount. Moving on to the next slide. Um, what is a community solar garden? A community solar garden is an array of solar panels that generates clean, renewable energy. Um, for folks that may not be able to put them on their house, they may not be able to put them on some of their buildings, this is a way to still access solar and clean energy, it's a great way uh for individuals or business that can't support solar panels, like I said, but still get the savings and help out our environment. So if we look at the slide here, you're looking at our agreement with US solar for community uh solar. So we have the year we're in a 25year agreement and then on the right hand side you have your bill credit rate over that um term of the agreement. So those 25 years it increases every year our bill credit rate and then what we pay them stays the same throughout that life of the 25-year agreement. So each year we are seeing a positive payback or a bill credit and it only gets better throughout the life of that agreement. The 25 years we are in year seven. Um if we want to go to the next slide. >> Can I ask just a quick question? Is this for the solar garden or for our on-site solar? >> Yep. Great question. This is for the solar garden. >> Okay. Thanks. >> Yep. So again, this is just talking about the solar garden. So since 2019, um you can see our addresses there on the left. Those are our subscriptions. The sum of the bill credit rate is that first column of numbers. The middle is our savings. And then the right is what we've paid the community solar gardens. So we've seen $74,000 of savings since 2019. And then if we look at this is what they project. So this is US solar projection throughout the life of that 25-year agreement. They're projecting we're going to see savings around that $4.6 million um area total. And again those are projections. Sometimes that may change obviously on what the solar gardens are producing. Now, we will move into our on-site solar. So, as you can see here from the photos, we have on-site solar at the high school and we have on-site solar at the West Middle School. We don't own these. These are owned um by a a you know, private group that we pay to use the energy it generates. So when they're broken down or they need repair, we um they know that by how it generates or we could report it to if we knew like something broke that landed on the roof or a contractor actually dropped a tool, whatever it may be, we could contact and they would have to pay for those fixes and it's in their best interest to be sure it's generating as much as it can because that's just that's how we pay them is off it what it generates. So um in 2023 it generated uh both sites combined did 1.4 million um kilowatt hours which resulted in approximately $77,000 of savings for the district. So no matter what we would be purchasing that energy it's just that we're purchasing it from them at a cheaper rate than we would would be from Excel Energy if that makes sense. And that's our on-site gener uh generation for one year. So, here's our 2023 energy uses as a whole district. Again, from left to right, we're looking at our water, our Excel bills, our natural gas, our solar, which is our on-site solar, um, and then our US solar, which is our community garden solar, and that totals out to roughly around 2.3 million dollars. So when looking at all these things and looking at automation system, I was trying to think of ways that we could save and reduce our energy. Um some of the things I've noticed is setting back HVAC schedules to be um you know be on when people are in the space, but if people are not there to turn our systems down. Um, I think that just off the top, since I've been here in August, that we could um reduce each building by two hours a day, which roughly equals out all of our buildings around 5,800 uh hours a year. So, I mean, that's quite a bit of energy reduction and it also is much better for our equipment. It's less hours on everything wear and tear. Um, so that's a big way to save setting as uh Roa mentioned the standard set points for all classrooms. So we heat to 68 and we cool to 74. Um, when I came into the district, there were some spaces that were I came in in August, so there's some spaces at 68, 71. Um, there wasn't as much consistency. And then sometimes I saw gyms that were cooled at like 66, 68. um those are very big spaces and extremely expensive to keep those cold um all summer. So um 74 would definitely reduce our cost there. Setting back our unoccupied set points um on our occupied set points means again when I shut that unit off or I program the unit to turn off at let's say 4:30 p.m. it's going from a 68 heated set point right now to now a 58° set point. So the unit won't turn on until enough rooms call for heat that are below that 58 degree set point. And that actually takes quite a bit of time for the size of our buildings and the way they're built. And it has to be it has to be pretty cold for multiple areas to reach that. Um and then again for cooling it would be around 82 84 where we would set that unoccupied set point so it wouldn't turn on when folks aren't you utilizing our buildings. So, that's a another great way to save. Um, setting holiday schedules. So, a lot of our systems, yes, they're off on the weekends and stuff like that, but when we don't have PD day and the students are gone, um, we ask our staff to set our automation on holiday schedule, which again turn those units to those unoccupied set points, so they're on a lot less. Um, we're upgrading Tanglin to LED lighting. That's our last building that needed to be um, upgraded to LED lighting. So, we're actually currently doing that right now. Currently, our district um operates approximately around $1.22 per square foot. Um a really good goal to strive for is a dollar per square foot. Um in my former uh district, we had our high school running around 80 cents per square foot. Um that being said, they didn't cool a single gym in their district, including the high school. So, a dollar per square foot is a great goal and that's what I'm shooting for, but cooling gyms and those big spaces is uh a dollar will be a hard goal to achieve, but I'm definitely trying to get there. Um, if we are able to do this, this could result in annual savings of approximately 300,000. So, if you're asking how I got there, I took that 22 cents and timed it by a square footage of the district. Um, and it's actually higher than that. I just lowered that due to the gym of the cooling, but we could actually save higher if we truly got to a dollar. Um, why are we doing this? Why are we putting in the efforts to save and reducing our energy usage? Um, I mean, obviously to care for the environment, but also to try and put more money in the classroom. Um, the funds that we save don't come, you know, back to building grounds or anything. They would go back to um, funding the classroom, whether it be salaries, whatever it may be. Just trying to reduce and help out where we can. Um, one bit of information, um, I know I've been asked a lot since I've been here is, can we increase our solar? Can we get more solar on our roofs or can we subscribe to more solar gardens? The answer to that question, I'm still working on with XL Energy Center or XL Energy and our uh, community solar uh, US Solar because you can only use a certain percentage of what you gener like what you use per year. So, we can't just add add. You can you're capped at a certain percentage. So, I'm trying to find out if we are a already capped and then b if we're not, how much can we add? Um, so yeah, >> that does it for the presentation. >> Thank you. >> Yeah, no problem. >> Any comments or questions? >> Chair Andre. >> Yes, Treasure Harland. >> I wanted to say thank you very much for doing this. I know it was kind of a bear of a thing for you to inherit because it was a project kind of started um with uh director Kevin Newman and Rio Chapanda and so you were left to juggle some of these things and and it was an important ask I think to get a full picture and so that the board and the community can understand what it's what it really takes to run um our schools every day. And it was helpful to show the savings because from the board like the treasures report perspective, we typically see only the outlay. And so those were some relatively large numbers, you know, in the millions of dollars for a year. And so thank you for this context. It's it's been awaited and needed and and thank you for your work. >> Yeah, I appreciate it. I uh it's fun to dive into and it's fun to try to find ways for us to save. Chair Andre. >> Yes. >> Um just a quick comment that that board in 2019 made a great decision uh to really increase our solar usage and it's very cool to see how that's paid off. Um so I appreciate the report. Thank you. >> Yeah, of course. >> Um I agree. I think that that was a really good decision. I also um remember learning from you that there is a cap on how much people can access solar energy which I baffles my mind but there it is. So something we can all lobby for with the LAC. Um and then um also I my question is I'm completely behind reducing our our energy like optimizing savings but my immediate question was setting the schedules was what about our offuse? I know our schools are busy all the time and not just with um during bell-to-bell. Um, so just wondering is there consideration about that or is that a factor at all and might not be as much cost savings? >> No, that's a that's a great question. Um, we partner with community ed. So community ed sends me a schedule um every Monday and I send that schedule out to the head um custodians and they can change the automation based on events on that schedule. Now, if something wasn't on the community schedule, it would be most likely unoccupied, but as long as it's on that community schedule, um we will turn it on. It's very easy to um like create an event and then you can just put a date and then you put your times and the unit will turn on during those times and then shut off. >> Oh, great. And that also is like when people are renting our spaces, that would also qualify for that. >> Yep. Yeah. Fantastic. Um, yeah. I Yeah, we turn the the HVAC on for them. Yeah, as long as it's on the comedian side. >> I don't know, maybe they pay extra. >> Um, >> yeah. >> That's in the chargebacks, I think. >> Yeah, >> it's considered. >> Thank you. >> Appreciate it. >> Cheer and Dre, can I ask a question? >> Yes. >> Uh, thank you so much. Um, I appreciate you being here and I was not on the board in 2019, but I'm happy whoever voted I think West Director West Morland had something to do with that. um you know for uh the solar um I just have uh two quick questions and so um as we're approaching winter and um in light of some of the outages that we have seen nationally like in Texas where like it was super cold um and their generator had um you know went out. Um, do we have any backup systems that we currently have in place like in schools during like a outage and like we when we can't access solar? Like is there something that we do have in place for situations or circumstances like that? >> Um, with being here since August, I'm not sure which buildings exactly have um backup generators. I know the high school does and what's typically on those and like the LED emergency lighting. um we're required to have like so many fixtures in the building that are emergency lighting, but we do have generators. I know at the high school um I could get back to you on the information about our other buildings. >> Okay. I think that's uh fine. And I just wanted to understand like what was like our broader plan around like an outage like a schoolwide outage around um power outages cuz I know often in Hopkins and especially like in the south area the power goes out a lot and so I don't know how it impacts schools and of course with the sun um you know going to be shutting off earlier during the winter months just wondering how it all works. So >> yeah and um like the solar basically like goes back to the grid. it's not necessarily um like directly hooked up into your building. >> Um so that wouldn't be able to be used as a backup that way. Um but typically what's on our generators are like server rooms kind of stuff like that to protect stuff. It's it's less of um like the lighting and stuff like that and like elevators sometimes are on there. >> Thank you so much, >> Jarz. >> Yes. um that yeah echo what people have said about thank you for digging into this because it's been a question floating out there so we really appreciate it. I guess just sort of my question is to just try to understand where the savings come from a little better. So Excel Energy produces electricity. >> Yeah. >> US Solar has solar gardens that are generating electricity. We pay for electricity from US solar that comes from their solar garden [clears throat] into the electricity that we're buying. And then the savings is coming from a bill credit that we are then saving on what we're purchasing from Excel for for the extra. >> Yep. >> Okay. And so like does Excel Energy own the thing as well? So then how would the solar garden allow us a bill credit when we're purchasing from Excel? >> So just to make just clarify, make sure we're on the same page. Um so we pay like a like a bank or we pay somebody who owns that solar community solar garden. We pay them and then we get the credit back on our Excel invoice. Okay. >> Yep. So, like I'm looking back at the slide number six. Um, so the first one we've paid 516,000 and then 185, but we got a bill credit of 592 140. >> I think he's saying, >> sorry, what? And just to clarify, so like why is XL energy giving us credits >> for something we're paying somebody else? That was my question. >> The energy that the community solar garden generates goes back to Excel. So it goes back to the grid. >> Okay. >> They're partner They partner. You can do it as an individual in your home. You can buy into a community garden through Excel Energy. >> They partner with Excel Energy. >> Yep. I'm actually I actually do that at my house. >> Yeah. Yeah. So, while they don't own the US solar, they're at least partnered. >> They're partnered. >> It's where that's where we get the credit. Okay. >> Yeah. And I I I just thought it was interesting that >> um do you know it on slide nine like it has the 2023 energy usage. Um >> do you know when we'd be able to get like 2024 or something? >> Um I kind of guess this this would question would pop up. Um, so the reason why I gathered information from 2023 is because um, I actually don't have access to Oracle being that I wasn't really here when it was used. So I wasn't like I wasn't looking at those invoices. It was a lot easier for me to go on Skyward, search up all the vendors, and search the invoices from 2023 because they were on Skyward. >> Okay, that makes sense. >> So that's the data we have access to. currently. Yes. Y >> Director Thompson, >> we could maybe try to follow up on that. >> Thank you. >> Any [clears throat] other questions, comments? Well, thank you so much. I think this was really illuminating for a lot of us. Um >> and I appreciate >> Thank you, a lighting pun. Um [laughter] um >> I found it electrifying. >> Oh, warming. >> Let's keep doing it. Punning. Okay, >> that's pretty solid. >> Pretty solid. [laughter] >> Um anyway, thank you for being here. I appreciate your time and all the information you brought to us. I think it answered a lot of our questions. >> Awesome. I appreciate you guys having me here. >> Thanks a lot. >> Yep. >> Thank you for the bright report. >> No [laughter] problem. leave before we >> It was cool. >> Get out of there before we keep doing >> Yeah, I'm gonna I got >> You got to run. >> Guys, enjoy the rest of your night. [laughter] >> Apologies. [clears throat] All right, I do think I started it. Um, so that takes us to our next agenda item, which is the operating levy update. Um, I would like to invite our representative from Ellers up to the table to help answer any questions. Um, and to give some context um, to anyone who's tuning in this evening. We talked a lot about doing this um last year, but the Minnesota legislature gave school boards the ability to renew an operating levy without going back to um our constituents for a vote, which we just did for another um levy. And so we are going to be discussing um that here at the board table tonight. Um it is expiring in 2028 and um Shelby McQuay is here to help us answer some questions and to get the discussion rolling. So thank you for being here this evening. >> Good evening. Thanks for having me. Um we'll just talk quickly about your operating referendum. It's been a lot of the, you know, you've had this kind of basis discussion going on just going for another referendum for building bonds and a capital project levy. Um, an operating referendum in the next slide is one of the most flexible that a district has. When they go to the voters and ask for appropriate pupil amount, um, you can just use that for any additional general education revenue that you need. um you raise the levy through or you raise the revenue through a levy. Uh the overall um mechanism is set up with an aid levy mix or equalized. If a district has low property wealth per pupil, you are raising all of the revenue through um your levy. You're not offsetting any of that with aid. Um, [snorts] so it's spread on your referendum market value, which means that um, uh, it's your your entire tax base, meaning that the homes at $100,000 pay the same amount as a, um, business with $100 worth $100,000. So there's no sort of change um there in how that revenue is raised. Um, you previously authorized that for um, 10 years, which is the maximum. So, this is a nice grid kind of just showing where we're at in terms of your authority. Um, as you mentioned, the revenue expires or the authority per pupil expires after fiscal year 28. So, um, if you were to take that to the voters, you would have to go um to uh the voters uh by the election year, November of 2027. Um, but as you'd mentioned, the legislature has granted school boards the authority to renew by board approval, and they've opened that window two fiscal years prior to when that expires. So, beginning July 1, 2025 through June 15 of 2027. And part of the um advocacy in moving that legislation forward was the fact that for many districts nearly 100% of the time or 100% of the time uh the voters were approving straight renewals uh of the operating referendum. So it became a little bit of a um u administrative burden re um relative uh relatively um burdensome for school districts to go to the voters [cough] to generate revenue that uh they were going to approve anyway. And we saw this a little bit with your renewal of the capital project levy. It was approved um unanim or not unanimously but by a large margin um for that straight renewal. Uh the revenue overall generates about $17 million. And part of why you um go to the voters for additional revenue is that um the majority of the revenue coming from the state um based on that formula allowance per pupil has not kept pace with inflation. So while the legislature has uh added an inflation index to the basic formula allowance, uh it's lost ground over time. So this chart just demonstrates that difference over a period of time where the top line shows what that formula allowance would have been had they benchmarked it to inflation. [snorts] Um and then that bottom line, the orange dotted line just shows where the statutory number is. Um and then that most recent increase to fiscal year 26 is the um is the inflation. So, we'll start to see those two um two lines go parallel. They'll never converge really, but um at least keep pace with inflation. Um the other reason overall um besides just the inflationary index or the inflationary mechanisms um now being in there in the uh statute but um there's another the other major revenue source for school districts just being um special education and those costs being very difficult for districts to manage. So, another reason school districts go to um their voters for uh or their um tax base for additional revenue. Um so, overall, the authority that you have that you um would renew by um schoolboard authority uh was uh started in um 2017 at $2,75. that was approved for a 10-year term and voters had included uh an authority to include inflation in that which is why we're today at about $2,400 per pupil. So, as part of doing this, the legislation requires you to ask for p public comment at the meeting that um at a meeting prior to adopting the resolution. Um, and then you would just send that into MDE and the county. Just a little bit of further information on um where other boards have acted on this. So the legislation began in 2023 and since that time every district has uh taken advantage of the opportunity to uh renew this by schoolboard authority except for a few that won in 2025 asked to include inflation in that. So they needed to take that to the voters. Um and then 2026 there was three districts that wanted to just revoke and replace that authority uh that they had. So, they did not board renew that. They revoked and replaced. Um, and then we're in process for fiscal year 27 and 28 and we'll begin uh the um board uh renewals for um fiscal year 29 um beginning July 1. So, um that's the process overall. Just a um public comment and a resolution that you have in your packets as well. I'm happy to answer any questions on that um or anything else. Thank you. >> Um I just wanted to quickly note I think um it was also mentioned that um we as part of this process need to host public comment after having this information publicly available. So we will be doing that as part of our regular public comment section of our meeting. So, just wanted everyone to know that we are fulfilling that obligation in this way. Um, so yes. Um, Director Xiao. >> Oh. Uh, I was I had a I was a little confused about revoke and replace. Um, does that mean that three districts just didn't they're not renew? So, how's that different for them renewing? Are they changing details or >> Yeah. So those districts um let's say they had $500 per pupil of authority and they wanted to have $750,000 or $750 per pupil of authority. They would revoke they would ask the voters if they could revoke the 500 and replace it with 750. So you can only do a board renewal if it's for the exact same amount for the exact same term or less. So they wanted more. So instead of board renewing the 500 and adding 250 let's say in that example they just asked their voters to revoke the 500 go to 750 which in effect uh added 250 of authority and and I think I know the answer but we're capped right we can't ask for more is that correct Hopkins that is >> correct um every district well there is an overall statutory cap on the amount of referendum authority that a district can go for if you're a sparity district, meaning you it's very far to another school. Um it's labeled in statute how how far that is. Um but those districts do not have a cap if you're a sparity. Um given the number of law changes over time, you are subject to the alternative cap, which is an eitheror calculation in statute. So you essentially have a slightly higher cap than the statutory cap [snorts] just because they do a hold harmless look back to the previous. So it's a matter of about $30 per pupil. Um but um and every district would have that alternative cap calculation. It's just so happens that your alternative cap calculation is slightly higher than the cap. >> That's interesting. the standard cap. >> Thank you, >> Chair Andre. >> Yes, Treasure Hartland. >> Thank you for coming here today and providing some of the context about how districts across the state are unanimously accepting this kind of new power of local control that the state legislator legislature speaking is hard granted us. Um this was a piece of um what the Hopkins LAC and other districts have advocated for for a long time because we are unique in this situation where if the city says this is how many firefighters we need, this is how much it costs to taxpayers and they just can do that and taxpayers can come and give community comment and interact with their um taxing bodies. But school districts largely do not have that power and are completely at the mercy of um either voters for different levies or their state legislatores for funding. And then we have to make do with that and we have to change our workforce and the services we provide to fit that budget that's kind of installed upon us. And so this is, you know, in recognition of that fact, the state legislature made that change. And I'm glad to see us taking this uh step today to discuss it and really appreciate [clears throat] your information both for our knowledge and for the communities. >> Chair Andre. >> Yes. Clerk Thompson. And so just to be clear, if we, you know, board renewed it, you're you're allowed to keep, so ours is pegged to inflation. It goes up with inflation, and so you're allowed to keep it written that way in a in a board renewal. >> Uh, yeah, actually, in a board renewal, the way the legislation is written, it will continue on as if it hadn't expired. So, um, I'm looking at this referendum allowances chart. um it'll actually continue upward from that 40 2479. So it'll continue with that inflation going forward. The way kind of a um nuance of the legislation is if you previously when you had to take it to the voters, you'd actually lose the year of inflation, which when it's two and a half% it doesn't really mean a whole lot, but um it does add up over time. And that's exactly why the legislature maintained inflation in the um formula allowance because it does um compound over time. >> Thank you. >> Yeah. >> Well, thank you also um [clears throat] for coming here tonight. Um, and I just wanted to echo um what Treasurer Hartland was saying about um I believe it is it was Treasurer Adams who brought this to the legislature every year. um stating that we are are one of the only tax school boards are one of the only taxing um bodies that can't um up their their um levies without going to the voters. And he would always say including the MS mosquito control district, they can tax you without your your consent. Um but school boards cannot. Um, so I appreciate this from the legislature. Um, letting um, school boards do this. We are accountable to our constituents. Um, and also I think it it it's really important that um we talk about the fact that because we aren't fully funded by the state legislature even though it's their constitutional duty to do so, we have become increasingly reliant on referendums and um that creates a lot of disparities. So um I appreciate that we're able to do this. I also wish we didn't have to. Um, and [clears throat] I wanted to um also bring up the fact that um we just had a referendum pass. And I wanted to just give everyone a little bit of historical context. Um that it is the highest yes percentage that we've um we've had in the in the district since 2005. Um so our voters said yes to the renewal of our um operating levy at 78% which is um higher um by one percentage point than um in 2017. So I wanted to make sure that everyone knows that we are not we are considering our public when we're making this decision. um and also the historical support that Hopkins has shown to all um schoolboard referendums and making I thought it was appropriate that we have this discussion right after um our public said yes, we support public schools and um at a historical rate. So any other comments or questions? Thank you all. Um, I am excited to share that we have some time. Um, are you going to be sticking around, Shelby, for when we discuss this at the board table tonight? >> Yep, I think I am. >> Okay, great. Thank you so much. >> Yep. >> Appreciate it. Well, that gives us a break, everybody. Um, I will see you back here at 700 p.m. >> for our public comment. Sure. >> Do it like somewhere else. >> There's so many of you. How many? Yeah. for Thursday, November 18th. Um it is a little after 7, so we're going to go ahead and get started. Um, I will, um, officially call the meeting to order and we will go down to, um, the bottom of the table, board table here, um, in order to recognize um, some amazing Hopkins Public School scholars who are here this evening to join us. Hi, thank you everyone and welcome again for this evening's recognition. We honor and celebrate our student athletes and their coaches from girls cross country and girls swim and dive. We come together to celebrate the remarkable achievements of our athletes who have qualified for the state championships and our section champs. This is a testament to their hard work, dedication, strength, and talent. On behalf of the Hopkins School Board and District, we would like to extend a heartfelt thank you to our dedicated girls swim coaches, Grace Bennon, Michael Duncan, and Laura Hebinski, as well as Emily Brown, who is our dive coach. We also want to recognize our co cross country coaches, Mike Harris, Ronnie Hamilton, Paul Jab, and Mitchell Shank. Thank you coaches for all you do throughout the season to guide and shape our athletes. Your hard work, commitment, and love for our student athletes plays a big role in their successes. We appreciate you very much. To the parents and caregivers of our student athletes, thank you for all you do to cultivate and cheer on your student. Parents and families are critical to athletes well-being, sense of self, and overall success. So, thank you for being here tonight. Well, Hopkins had an amazing showing at the Minnesota State cross country meet this year with three outstanding qualifiers. Junior Morgan Waiter Wetcher >> Wctor. Oh, Mr. Paris told me how to say that and I still said it wrong. Morgan Wer, a twotime state qualifier, delivered another stellar performance by finishing 23rd for the second year in a row and earning all state honors. Congratulations, Morgan. And you'll get two claps, one now and one when you walk up the royal blue runner. Freshman Chloe Voyen, who is ill tonight. We hope that she feels better soon, impressed with the strong 34th place finish in her second trip to state. And senior Sam Fuller, who is here this evening, capped off their season with a fantastic firsttime appearance, placing 39th. Congratulations, Sam. What an amazing accomplishment for these athletes and for our Hopkins cross country program. And we do have parents and caregivers in the audience and also our coach, Mr. Harris. Thank you for being here. So, we would like our two runners to um stand up and go behind the royal blue runner so you can experience the full length of it. And when you hear your name, please make your way down. >> Now, I'm paranoid to say this name because I feel like I'm going to get it wrong, but Morgan Wctor, >> congratulations. [applause] >> So, we'll have you grab your suit jacket and hang out hang out up here for >> And then Sam Fuller. [applause] Congratulations. Thank you. Congratulations. >> Now, this is the photo op >> opportunity. >> Oh, yeah. There you go. Perfect. >> Mr. Harris, do you want to come up for the photo? >> I know. >> You should be in the photo. >> Come on up. >> Is really good. [laughter] We're not that good. [applause] >> And we are learning that um our cross country champions are going to Alabama. Was it When when are you going to Alabama for the national competition? When is that? >> The first week in December. >> First week in December. Awesome. And there will be 4,000 runners there. So, good luck. We are going to be cheering you on, but we're going to be here cheering you on. Good luck. How long is the run? >> Oh my. Okay. Okay, >> you can do that road. >> Okay. So, well, congratulations cross cross country runners for making it to state. We are now going to honor and celebrate our girls swim and dive. The Hopkins girls swim and dive team had an incredible year filled with growth, energy, and strong performances across all levels. Our athletes showed consistent improvement throughout the season. supported one another and represented Hopkins with pride at every meet. We finished the season by winning our 6A section meet and producing state qualifiers in both swim and dive along with many personal bests and a truly positive team culture that stood out all year. Excellent. Every meet, win or lose. Pause. Coach Grace confidently confirmed Hopkins was the best team on deck. We all couldn't be more proud of this group and all they accomplished. So, what I recently learned is and we'll we'll read the names. We do have a large swim and dive team and we have three three athletes here who went to state for dive. Correct. You went to state for dive and that was last week and you did great. [laughter] Yes. [gasps] And then um and then Nora who is not here, Nora Vulovich, she went to state for swim. Okay. And then we have another athlete here as well. Right. Okay. So, we're going to be calling up. We'll read all the names, but we'll call all four of you. And then you want to um want you all walk back to the back of the royal blue runners. You can walk all the way up. Yeah. And then when you hear your name, please make your way down. Amelia Aritto, Chloe Lundquam, Ellie Alreson, Vivy Green, Leila Riper, Riper, Ariana Wani, Caitlyn Owen, Rose Pollston, Jacquilar Boore, Alice Cavaro, Avery Bulman, Caroline Shapen or Chapen, Elliot Lee, Nora Volvic, Ava Green, Eloise Johnson, Emma Lundquam, Gigi Grodnik, Josie Shunover, sorry, Josie Lowe, Lahie McCabe, Millie Alberg, Nora Coughlin, Carly Rosenberg, Piper Kundi, Rebecca Feice, Ruthie Nordine, Zoe Peterson, Clara Klouse, Klau, Klawix, >> Koslovich, you're the name person. Um, Milo, Nyla West, Sadie Steckler, Sierra Hellstrom, Vivian Crawling, Alana Amin. [cheering] [applause] Congratulations Alana Bailey Evans, Bella Estrada, meme McCabe, and Marik Mleen, come on up. [applause] Justelle Zabar, Maddie Olsen, Addie Walters, come on up. [applause] Arya Bergland, come on up. [applause] Annie Flum, Anna Jagger, Izzy Koig, Rosalyn Goodmanson, Goodmanson, and that is it. So, please give these athletes a round of applause for their achievements. [applause] center. There we go. >> No, you're good. [applause] >> Um, >> okay. Shannon, Mr. Paris will take Chloe's. Athletes, thank you for being here. Families, thank you for being here. And you're welcome to stay, but you're also welcome to enjoy the rest of your evening. >> Thank you, Mr. Harris. >> We're like, and then we found out how much how many practices there are. We're like, >> at least it's not Tuesday at least. So, >> that's good. Spread it out a little bit. >> Thank you everybody. Um that now takes us to um the public comment section of um open agenda. Um did we receive any cards and were there any voicemails? So we haven't received any voicemails or um people showing up this evening for public comment. Wanted to make sure that everyone is aware that this public comment section was also the opportunity um for community to make public comment on the renewal of the operating levy that was discussed prior um at our workshop meeting. So we do love it when you come here and join us for our meetings. Um and also we like to hear from our community. So, you can do that in two ways. You can um call the number that is in the board packet and on our schoolboard page and leave a voicemail if you aren't able to attend or you can come and arrive before the meeting um to fill out a comment card and then you can address the board here in person. We host two public comment periods, one at the beginning of the meeting and if needed one at the end. um in order to hear from our community and each um public comment open [clears throat] um public comment section is 30 minutes in length. So with that we get to move to um one of my favorite parts of every board meeting which is the student board representative reports. I will turn it over to you guys to take over. Thank you. Hello everyone. I'm Sufan Osman. I'm a sophomore board rep. And to start mine off, student council just had elections to nom or to elect new freshman members and then one more for each grade. So there's a total of 10 new members. No, nine new members. Uh I don't know any of the names except for the sophomore rep, uh Stephano Zaki. Uh the next uh I wanted to do my teacher spotlight on the AP bio teacher KJ. She's a great teacher and I enjoy her class even though it's like really hard and one of my hardest classes. >> Uh I just find it really rewarding like being able to like problem solve and actually like push my brain to think harder. >> Thank you. >> Hello everyone. My name is Eloise Bolan and I'm a junior board rep. First we'll start off with class meetings. So, we had class meetings last week. 9th and 10th graders were last Tuesday and then 11th and 12th graders were last Wednesday. They just went over general class expectations um and upcoming events. They also presented awards to scholars and teachers for being outstanding. Um so, the teachers get selected by the scholars and the scholars get selected by the teachers. I think it's wonderful. Um we also have a digital learning day this Thursday. Um and then only for the high school and then HOSA which is Health Occupation Students of America organized a blood drive. They already have about seups. Um so everyone 17 and up is eligible to participate and then everyone 16 and up is eligible to also give blood just with parental consent. Um the blood drive is going to happen all day Friday. So I recommend anyone that's going to be at the high school to give blood. Um I'll be there. And then my teacher spotlight is my AP World teacher. Her name is Miss Heimlick. She has a wonderful classroom environment. She's just she caters to everyone's needs and ability levels. And all in all, she's just a wonderful teacher that I'm happy to have. >> I don't want to break the flow here. >> Oh, sorry. >> It's on me. Uh I don't want to break the flow here. I think we should skip to Iris and come back. >> Okay. I'm Iris. I'm a sophomore student board representative at the high school. I wanted to start off with a volunteer opportunity for high school students. Um it is with the student multicultural advisory committee. Um and it is an opportunity where students can volunteer to empower and advocate for student voice in civic issues and safety at school. It's in partnership with the Minnitonka Police Department and it's a great opportunity to gain skills in law enforcement and public safety. Um guest speakers will come and talk to these students and other um people about um mental health and well-being, violence prevention and resilience. So that's a really great opportunity for students interested in anything related to um the police or law enforcement or public safety, anything like that. Um there was also a post-secondary financial aid planning night um last Tuesday where um HHS counselors hosted um like I said a financial aid planning night for students and families who need help providing money for post-secary education. They had a guest speaker um and really just helped families understand changes and trends in scholarships, FAFSA, um ACT and SAT scores impact on admission and things like that. Um, it was super helpful for a lot of families and definitely sparked a lot of conversation around how universities and colleges are changing right now and what families need to be doing to make sure that their children have all of the opportunities available to them and are able to attend college if that's something they're interested in. Um, there's also an opportunity for Hopkins um, scholars to join the Hopkins Southwest Recreational Basketball. Um, and it's open registration to HHS students um, 9 through 12. Um, and they also added a travel league recently for more competitive playing. Additionally, the Hopkins Education Foundation teacher gratitude gifts are on sale. So, if you donate $25 to HF, you can award a teacher an appreciation gift, which is super cool and fun. By donating, you are funding grants given to different clubs, organizations, and groups in the Hopkins community, which just really help all of the students have the experience that they want at our schools. Um, which brings me to my teacher spotlight. I am spotlighting Miss Swiggum. Um, she's the orchestra teacher at the high school and she's always created a super welcoming environment for students to learn fun new songs and skills on their instrument. Um, especially important is that this year we started consistently rehearsing the Women in Strings Ensemble, which was briefly started last year, but didn't really have enough time to take off um, and has officially started this year, which is super cool um, since a student wanted to start it. And, um, Miss Swigum has been super duper understanding and flexible and supportive in making this group happen. Um, and it's been super fun to be a part of. And that's everything I have for my report. >> Hi everyone, my name is Adena Togel and I'm in ninth grade. Um, I wanted to start off with my teacher spotlight. Today I'll be spotlighting my earth science teacher, Miss Brevik. Um, she's really engaging with her assignments and she always tries her hardest to accommodate for everyone. Recently in silence, we just completed our what will happen to Hawaii project. In this assignment um we talked about the main topics were how tectonic plates were part of the evidence on how Hawaii was made, how earth formed the continental and oceanic for floors and how earth's interior is being driven by a cycle of matter. With those three topics, we made a poster answering those questions and then making models to represent the answers. Um, next the very first deck of practice was on November 12th from 6:00 to 8:00 p.m. During this groups were groups and individual people were put into different sections and they were given a prompt. They were also given some areas within the prompt that they needed to come up with solutions for. They then went into rooms with a um real DECA judge and presented their proposals. They were then asked some unprepared questions and then were given additional comments at the end. Um, one of the school plays this year is Greece. They've already had their opening show on November 14th, and the last couple of days to see the play are the 20th, 2, 21st, and 22nd. So, make sure to buy your tickets. Um, new changes have been made to the school's counselor meeting system. So, this new system will allow meetings to be set up through the Maya learning in our class link areas where you um when you set up your meeting through my learning, you'll get an email with Maya and then you'll also be able to see your meeting schedules on Maya Learning itself. So, you can use that as ways to let your teachers know about your meetings. Lastly, I want to talk about the rock paper scissors battle between um Dina students, Mr. for Shank and the student body during passing time. So Shank put together a competition where kids played rock paper scissors against him during the passing times only. And at the end of the day, he would count how many of the games the students won and how many he won. If he won the overall amount, he asked that all of the kids brought to bring together about 100 cans of food for the food drive. He also said that the most amount of cans brought to second block classes by the end of the week would get a pizza party. And Mr. Shank obviously won. So, everybody's bringing their cans. Um, that's all I have for you today. Thank you. >> It's all over social media. >> All right. Good afternoon. My name is Zayn Tac. I'm the senior representative for the virtual edu school. Things have been doing pretty well there. We've even gotten our student leadership together committee together to work on a virtual edu dance. But there are a few big changes that our students have actually objected to. This is the first one that was brought to my attention. So, this is the first one I'll be speaking to you about. Halloween apparently a topic of some animosity at Hopkins public schools. I first heard about this on October 30th when my teacher announced to the class that we would not be dressing up because Halloween was considered evil by some people. This announcement was made to a group of children ranging from ages 11 to 18. Children who look to our teachers for guidance and information. After this announcement was given, we saw the chat flooded with people spamming things like evil and they're right. Later, I was informed that this was the official wording in the email sent to Hopkins virtually edu. Regardless of anyone's personal opinions, referring to a widely celebrated holiday is evil is inappropriate and unprofessional. When we allow religion to dictate the way that we teach in public schools, we risk making Hopkins High School a place where not all students feel welcome or safe. Religious families can discuss with their children what they believe at home or if they're truly interested in a faith focused education, attend a religious school. Public schools are for the public and shouldn't be catered to any specific relig religious group. If our school is willing to ban dressing up because of religious objections, what will be banned to next? This is a step in the wrong direction. It's a step backwards. In a political environment where the separation of church and state has already been so thoroughly threatened, must we bring it into our schools, too? Is there not a single place where kids can be kids here? Thank you for your time. That's my presentation. Hello. Um, I'm Ava Schwab. I'm a freshman at Virtual Edu. This is actually my first board meeting, so I don't have a report. um today, but I'm really excited to learn and grow with this community. >> Thank you for being here >> and for having me. [clears throat] >> Um did we want to go around and introduce ourselves, Director West Morland, for our new student board rep? >> Sure, that would be great. Do you want to start? >> Yeah, absolutely. Um so, thank you to all of our student board representatives for being here tonight. Um, Zayn, I wanted to recognize your efforts to really grow the student board representative program at virtual edu. Um, I it's something we've been talking about for about a year. Um, so it's wonderful to have Ava here and to see um our representation from virtual edu grow. So, thank you so much. Um, I'm Jen West Morland. I've been on the Hopkins School Board since 2018. I will be rolling off the board when my term ends at the end of December. Um so for um several years kind of off and on I've had the privilege of being the board member liaison for our student board representatives. It has been the role that I have enjoyed most of all my roles on the board. Um, and uh, I just think that your voices are incredibly important both during your student board representative reports and in the work that you do um, on board committees and the way that you participate in meetings. Um, so really really grateful to have your voices at the table. >> Hi, I'm Jiming Jao. Uh, I'm uh, this is my se third year on the school board on my first term. Uh I've got two kids in the district um in the Shing program uh in fifth grade and second grade. So uh always very excited to hear up from our students. Uh I think I'll be taking over as the >> That's for the board to decide for the board, but it is wonderful to know that you're interested. >> Well, I think I'm the backup liaison. [laughter] So >> yes, you are currently the backup. >> That's currently the backup. >> Good evening. Uh my name is Jason Ross. Uh similar to uh director West Morland, I will be rolling off the end of December. So within a month, um I have three kids in Hopkins School District, two in 7th grade and one in the fourth grade. And uh I am your current vice chair uh chairing the monitoring committee who helps um review and implement the policies obviously with your guys leadership. And that's what we'll be looking forward to in January is more young leaders uh helping review the policy because obviously you know it's going to impact you directly. So without your input um uh these policies won't work. So hopefully you guys can help the new leadership who's going to be sitting in the vice chair who can help you guys and uh join uh this particular committee. We've definitely had great representation and looking forward to um continuing on and many more uh individuals. Thank you. >> Hi. Uh my name is Shannon Andre. I am currently the chair of the board. Um I also get to work at Gatewood Elementary, which is a lot of fun. Um, and I am in my sixth year on the board and did not um um I absolutely meant it when I said this is like my favorite part of board meetings is hearing from you guys. And um I do have a couple follow-up questions, but I will pass it along to Dr. Mary Perry Reid. >> Hi everyone. I'm Dr. Reed superintendent and um it's a true pleasure to have student reps at the board table. So, thank you for being here and for your thoughtful and provocative reflections and helping us understand and know more about what you're learning in your various courses at the high school and at virtual edu. We really appreciate it. And um I have a kiddo who's an eighth grader at West I am Rachel Hartland and I'm [clears throat] currently serving as the treasurer of the board. I am approaching the end of the fourth year of my first term and will be starting a new term in January and so I look forward to working with all of you. Thank you very much for being here. I [clears throat] don't know exactly what my voice is doing right now. I don't always sound like this. [laughter] Um I have three kids. I have a high schooler um in 10th grade and an eighth grader and a sixth grader at North Middle School. >> Hi, my name is Brooke Roer. Um I am serving my second year. We'll be ser will start my third year in January and I um have two kids in the district and I am very excited to work with all of you and to learn from you and just to support you in any way that I can. So, thank you all for serving. And >> I'm Kai Thompson. I'm the clerk on the board. I've got three kids in the district. Um, fifth grade and two at the high school. Um, finishing up my second year as well, like Director Roer. Um, and certainly just appreciate you all being here and just, you know, lending your perspective and and student voice at the table. So, appreciate it. >> Great. Um, any comments, questions on any of the board reports? I did just have a quick follow-up question on the um volunteer opportunity. Is that a committee through the city of Minnotonka or is that something kids can access through the school? So, my understanding of that is that our new safety coordinator who I can pull up their name really quick in just like two seconds for you. >> I think so. >> I believe Chi. Um, they are partnering with the police department. Um, it's not a committee. It's more of just like a partnership between the school and the police department. Um, I know that there is a link to an application for that on the um, Hopkins newsletter with some more information on there and then also if you fill out the application and they accept you, they will give you even more information. Um, so yeah, I'm not on that so I do not have all of the information, but my understanding is that yes, it's a partnership between the school and the police department. >> Fantastic. Thank you. I'm really glad to hear that there's going to be student representation during those really important conversations um that the district is having with um local police. So, thank you for bringing that to the table. It it makes a big difference knowing that that's happening and I hope lots of kids um take advantage of it. Um, and then I wanted to thank you, um, Isane for bringing to us what you brought. Um, I think that it's important that we as, um, educators are, um, sending out the messaging that is inclusive and welcoming and makes all students feel comfortable in their educational environment. So, I appreciate that. >> Chair Andre. >> Yes. Yes, >> I did have a question about the blood drive, Eloise, you mentioned. Um, is it are we bringing in uh some nurses or health care professionals to do it? >> I believe so. I don't think that anyone at the school is um like has the certifications to draw blood from people, but from what I know um last year it was I think it was in the auditorium and people will so I just signed up. They tell you an exact time. I think it's like 10 minutes. You go in, they take your blood. I believe it's like nurses um will take your blood and then you just go back to class. So, >> okay. Is Is it open to staff? >> I believe so. Um but I think staff would also have to fill out. Yeah. It >> is. We We got invited. It's in our email. >> It's in Okay. >> As long as you're over 17, you're good. >> I'm very over 17. Don't worry about that. [laughter] Um um and actually it says that teachers and staff will receive priority check-in. >> Wow. >> So there you go. >> Um >> Cheer Andre, can I ask a question? >> Yes. >> Um Iris, did you say that you were taking the ACT test or you already took the ACT test? >> Not quite. So I'm I've not taken the ACT or the SAT um as I'm only a sophomore. um and that's not something that is regularly practiced at Hopkins. However, um the ACT and SAT scores were and their impact on college admission were discussed at the um financial aid um like planning night um with the counselors which was last Tuesday um because many schools and like universities and colleges are test optional now um but there's still a lot of bias around students who do or do not take the ACT or SAT. Um, and what their score on that um if they do take it, what score they get and how that impacts whether or not they get into college, which colleges they get into. Um, stuff like that is something that's that conversation is circulating right now because it's pretty complicated since like I said, schools are becoming test optional. But again, there's a lot of bias from the many many years where it was um socially and also like like in policy required um to apply. So yeah, >> if you have any questions, I have taken the >> Oh, yeah. >> Yeah. >> Okay. I This is so old school. Is it electronic now or is it still on paper? >> Yes, fully electronic. >> Okay. [laughter] >> When I took it, it was on paper. So, I'm just wondering. And did you get your test score right away after you take it? >> No. So, I took an SAT two weeks ago and I haven't received my score yet. It comes out about a month after. >> Oh, >> yeah. >> Okay. >> I will say >> So, you took the SAT? >> I took the SAT? Yes. The through the school you can take the ACT, but I decided to take the SAT because I think I'll do better on it. >> Was it held at the high school? >> No, it was at Minnetonka, I believe. >> Did you see other Hopkins students take there taking the SAT with you? >> I did not. I saw a couple other like Minnotonka people, but I didn't see any other Hopkins students. Although, I do know of other Hopkins students that take that have taken the um SAT or that are going to take the SAT instead of the ACT. >> Okay. Thanks. >> Great. Well, thank you all. Um appreciate your time. You don't necessarily have to stay for the rest of the meeting, but we welcome you um to stay. And that takes us to the superintendence report. >> Thank you, Chair Andre. Well, as we're getting the deck up, um I'll be starting with um highlighting our kindergarten information night, which is one of our biggest events, biggest and most important events that we hold annually here in Hopkins. We had 373 RSVPs for kinder information night last Thursday. Um, and these future kindergarteners are the class of 2039. >> Wow. >> Jeez. >> So, thank you to the hundreds of families who convened at our high school. And I'd like to compliment our fabulous communications and marketing team who work hard to prepare for and host the event. In attendance were elementary principles, kindergarten teachers, cabinet leaders, royal mascots, our two royal mascots, and [clears throat] also 15 high school student volunteers who greeted families and led interactive crafts with our future kindergarteners. So, it was a great event. And I do believe we also had a board member who may have left the special meeting to go and help blow up balloons. [laughter] Yes, >> potentially. >> Potentially. And I would also like to um truly and sincerely thank our Hopkins community. We successfully passed our bond referendum as well as renewed the capital projects levy. And this really is a big deal. Preparing for and putting out a referendum, especially a bond referendum of $140 million, is a lot of work. It's the culmination of years of facility assessments, identifying and costing projects, and determining what truly is needed for our current and especially next generation of students and their learning. So, thank you, Hopkins community. The bond referendum passed at 73%. The capital projects levy was renewed at 78%. There were 70 districts across the state who put out nearly 100 referendum questions and we're just so grateful to have a supportive community here in Hopkins. And now the important [clears throat] work begins um for phasing and timing the projects. and we're excited to roll up our sleeves and begin. Also, congratulations to our reelected board director, Rachel Hartland, our current treasurer. Congratulations, Rachel. As well as congratulations to two newly elected board directors, Johanna Heyman and Sarah Wilhelm Garbers. And future board director Willilhelm Garbers is in the audience tonight. Congratulations, Sarah, and thanks for being here. We are very excited to continue on with Director Hartland and we're excited to have you join our school board future director Sarah Wilhelm Garbers. And as as most of you know, school boards play a vital role in shaping district policy, reviewing and approving district budgets, hiring and evaluating the superintendent, and of course serving as the bridge between schools and the public. So very important body of people. We had a full house at the Hopkins Education Foundation breakfast last Thursday. Schoolboard members, past and current HF board members, cabinet and school leaders gathered together. We enjoyed a delicious meal prepared by our culinary experts from the high school and we heard from speakers including the superintendent. We celebrated a $4 million milestone reach recently achieved by HF and we're really um grateful to HF for all of the support that they provide our district and a special thanks for the $57,000 in grant funding that was recently distributed to multiple classrooms and teachers this fall. Our K12 math specialist has been very busy lately visiting elementary classrooms to observe math instruction. And she and our elementary principles recently observed, yes, 85 math lessons and were pleased when they observed vibrant spaces with students who they saw actively exploring, reasoning, and discussing mathematical ideas rather than passively receiving lectures or procedural lessons. They saw students working in small groups, explaining their thinking, using multiple strategies to solve real world problems. And they were also excited to see teachers who were facilitating active learning and asking probing questions, guiding discourse, and connecting student ideas to important mathematical concepts. So, we're really impressed so far with our new I am math curriculum, and we look forward to having that curriculum and our very talented teachers generate increased math achievement for our students. [snorts] Here is representation from one middle school math lesson that I observed in Miss Clus's class at North. Students were engaged in a structured lesson of self-guided fraction practice designed to build foundational skills to confidently divide fractions. Miss Clouse curated a progression of tasks that allowed students to work at their own pace while deepening their understanding of equivalent fractions, comparing fractional values, and interpreting fractions in multiple forms. And then I saw Miss Clouse circulate herself strategically throughout all of the small groups, checking for understanding, offering targeted prompts, and encouraging students to explain their reasoning. So, thank you, Miss Clouse, and the rest of our middle school math teachers for facilitating active learning with our middle school mathematicians. In October, our digital literacy specialists, our tech integration specialists, our IDL team, and our information services team hosted a district-wide tech extravaganza, which was a hands-on celebration of future focused learning in Hopkins. Families explored digital literacy, AI, computational thinking, and computer science while also receiving support with Canvas, district devices, and healthy tech habits at home. Students and caregivers drove Sphero robots. They played unplugged coding games, browsed media center resources, and tested their skills in a real or was it AI generated activity to help inform emerging AI guidance. So, I want to thank our community for giving us the opportunity to even host something like this because with a renewed capital projects levy and also an HEF grant, these resources help us strengthen digital literacy and ensure Hopkins students have access to modern learning tools. In a similar vein, Dr. Tiffany Nielsen Wkelman was featured on a panel at the Minnesota STEM and Computer Science Symposium. Hopkins and Duth were the only Minnesota districts invited to this event or to be featured at this event I should say and this is because Hopkins computer science for all equity approach is unique statewide. Dr. Tiffany is also being recognized at the state level for her media center redesign. We are hosting an upcoming visit from the top media specialist at MDE to learn about Hopkins Media Center redesign. Thank you, Dr. Tiffany, for your vision, leadership, and partnering with others to create new and expanded opportunities. And thanks to Dr. Anne Erdle and Director John Wed for your support and your department support in these efforts as well. A few weeks ago, I traveled to Austin, Texas with our CTE or college and technical um education coordinator, Cara Leavonne. And also with us was one of our high school co-principles, Lisa Tao, as part of the Strive Together network. We are very grateful to our district partner, Children's First, for funding the trip and facilitating our professional learning. The Strive Together Network is a national nonprofit organization that connects more than 70 communities to improve educational and life outcomes for children from cradle to career. And the goal is to put 4 million more young people on a path to economic mobility and use cradle and career outcomes such as kindergarten readiness, third grade reading, and graduation rates to monitor progress. And so during this quick two-day conference, we visited the um Austin Community College, which has a career exploration center for middle schoolers and high schoolers throughout the city of Austin and beyond. And we also began laying the groundwork for partnering with Ford NGL as we think about creating careermies at our high school. And lastly, November is Children's Grief Awareness Month, which is a time to recognize that many of our young people, elementary, middle school, high school, even carry the deep weight of losing someone they love. In Hopkins, we are committed to making sure no student navigates this journey alone. Through a partnership with Park Nichollet's growing through grief program, trained grief counselors work directly with our schools to support students who are coping with loss. There are small group sessions, individual check-ins, and guidance for families and staff. And this partnership really helps our students feel seen, supported, and connected during what must be the hardest moment in time in their life. So, we're grateful for this collaboration and we're committed to supporting our students in Hopkins. And with that, I invite Dr. Lightfoot to come forward for our continued opportunity to have a department spotlight. We've featured business services. We've featured innovation, design, and learning. And now we want to feature human resources. And Dr. Dr. Lightoot, you get to lead business services and HR. So, >> it's a pleasure and an honor. >> You're not busy. You're not busy at all. >> I I also get to continue the uh good work that the uh board set forth in its workshop related to its use of >> puns [laughter] to be set up. Shedding a little light, if you will, on the human resource department based on all of the solar work that was done before. um hopefully will throw a little levity into all the work that the uh human resource staff does on behalf of those within the Hopkins school community. Uh really we like to refer to our to ourselves as a lean and mighty team um serving in multiple capacities, multiple spaces that I'll kind of walk through this evening. I am privileged to work with really incredible people who are dedicated to the work um that is involved in all the human resource functions that happen within the district. Uh, as you'll see, our department includes myself, um, Jill Joyce in our benefits, Julie Flourish working our HRIS systems, Daniel Maloney doing the recruiting, selection, retention, um, Susan Dalby working with employee engagement and workplace culture, Rishma Mandansa assisting in the HRIS specialist, and Jenny Geer assisting an employee benefits associate. So [clears throat] as we think about um really the work of HR again keep calm and pun professionally looking at all of the elements that kind of come in just some key points of interest. Uh if you think about the work that we do um Hopkins has anywhere at any given point in time around 1350 employees many when you see that number have multiple assignments. So when you think about um not only that number of people there are multiple individuals who have multiple roles throughout the system. So part of the work in human resources is really about keeping that information uh really solid in our systems because ultimately that really provides the work and the service and the benefit that the community receives. And like I said, we feel very fortunate to be in a community that continues uh to support that work on behalf of our community and our families and our students. Um sometimes people forget that behind all that we actually run a million-doll, multi-million dollar self-insured benefit plan for health and dental for the district. We [clears throat] were one of the first um to follow in moving towards self-insured benefit plans, which means that we administer that plan um as a district and are not fully insured, which means that we um would rely on outside sources to do that. So when you think about that, it adds additional benefit to Hopkins because instead of any of the reserve funds in our self-insured plan going to a third party provider, we keep that internal and local so that we can u reap the benefit of that so that when we run that any return on the plan, any return on the investments in the plan comes back. keeping our overall benefit costs manageable um such that over the past two decades that we've had the plan um we have continually beat industry average in any of the increases. Keeping our benefit plan premiums low and the services that people can access through that benefit plan at a high level of service. We also administer nine labor agreements and multiple employee handbooks. Uh that work comes in in the multi-pages that you see when you approve those agreements as part of the work that we bring in front of you. Um when we negotiate and pull together all the sets of information regarding the terms and conditions of employment that happen for all of the work that occurs on a daily basis. If you think about the employee orientation sessions, we run about 104 of those each year, two times a week. Uh we keep individuals oriented that start um and engage them in the process and really are in many cases those welcoming faces that first bring people into the community here in Hopkins. Some other fun facts. Over 80% of the district's budget flows through human resource assignments and benefits. And when you think of this lean and mighty team of seven managing over 80% of $130 million budget for this level of engagement that we get from that group to make sure that everything that we do operates well for those who are within our community. It really is an astounding group of individuals that do so much so well. When we think about the uh posting positions, we have over 450 that we post each year with thousands of applications in total. Uh so when we think about the volume uh that gets processed in human resources with over 450 position postings, you get those postings, you see those postings, we promote those postings that come through. Um so you can see truly the volume just if even that alone and looking at making sure that we have the right individuals in the right place doing the right work in a little bit more detail. Um the next slide when human resource sings it's all about employee harmony. At least that's what we like to think. Um so the key service areas as we've mentioned those areas of employee and labor agreement management and administration. Um the office does run all of the medical, dental, employee insurance and other benefit programs including all of the workers compensation components. Um the OSHA compliance elements that are part of the work that we are engaged in as well as any of the long-term disability and life insurance. Um sometimes those programs um not often in front of people's minds but certainly when they are needed essential for the individuals who need those services. We also facilitate all the employee licensing and relicure committees and documentation. It's important to understand that for many of the positions in our district um there are employee licensing and relicure requirements. keeping track of that information assisting individuals as they work through that. Part of that also um is part of the documentation that we are required to provide for the Minnesota Department of Education. Part of that you may hear comes from the star report, an annual report that we look at all of the individual assignments in the district, report those to the department of education, line up all the uh lensure requirements, make sure that those are audited through the department of education and then work to make sure um on those compliance components that we do have individual licenses verified with the state. Um, sometimes people forget that in the full scope of services that we provide, not only do we have those 104, if you will, sessions of bringing people in to the community, we also have our time that we need to help people think about and plan for that retirement aspect of the work that we do. We do interface with the teachers retirement association and the public employers retirement association and really helping people that um are and have given service not only to Hopkins but also to the education profession those uh terms and conditions that really allow them to uh celebrate the work that they've done stay connected to us in retirement. Um it always amazes me how many individuals we have who come to us and remain um connected to Hopkins in so many ways. I think one of the best reminders that I had of that uh many of you may be aware that uh Ukare uh for seniors had its uh really kind of phase out of its plan leaving many individuals wondering um in a Medicare set of conditions what they were going to do for their insurance plans. We partnered with Blue Cross Blue Shield to offer a retiree plan option through our own plan and plan design and kudos to our benefits department for literally becoming individual almost concierge service to many of our retirees who were coming back and wonderful to see some of our 90year-olds who were gracing the halls walking through and having some collective memories uh together and with us about some of their experiences here in Hopkins. ans many of whom are also members proud members of the community who support what we do continually um and continue to support us even into their retirement. Uh we also walk through all the employment verifications and other data documentation that individuals might need including all of those fun little tax statements and benefit statements and everything else that's part of the required element that we need to be processing. If there are any grievances, mediations, arbitrations, we process those, deliver the wage administration and any employee relations. As I mentioned, we do have reporting requirements sometimes with the department of labor. And I think some of the other aspects that have grown over time are not only the family medical leave act and the administration of any employee leaves. As you're aware, we also will be administering the newly uh established paid family medical leave act, which starts in January. So, we've been spending time making sure our system is developed, that we at least understand what we know right now, understanding that there are some um aspects of that plan to be learned along the way. We also work through if there are um leave accommodations or other considerations, any assignment modifications, workplace modifications under the Americans with Disability Act so that we become partners and looking at the work and service that individuals can provide for us. Lastly, um a lot of the employee training and development and then if we have any other data retention pieces that we need for required records. So, in essence, it's really a full scope of services um that we are proud to be able to provide for the Hopkins School District. And as I said, it truly is a benefit to be a part of individuals who really care deeply about the work that they do because they feel that they can do this work to help others do the great work that they were meant to do. So with that, if there are specific questions, I'm more than happy to uh be of any additional information or additional insight that can be added. >> Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Lots of work for a small team. >> Yes. >> You did you talk about our Tuesday morning meetings with business services and HR? >> I did not. Well, it it's it's become such a nice convening. So, every Tuesday morning from 9:00 to 10:00, HR and business services get together and I try to be there, but Nick leads it and it's it's just been a wonderful opportunity to build culture across the two departments and to have the team feel like, okay, we're checking in on all the things. We're not dropping any balls. We're all working together. It's >> Yeah, >> I feel like we've made such good progress with that group and it's such a wonderful team of people. >> Yeah. And to look at the I would say interconnectedness of the work that all of those spaces do and to be able to feel that level of partnership and collaboration. um often through a lot of the operational elements that are essential just to make sure that even some of these base level operations are are functional and that um we're helping to contribute and what I really like about that group is that um sometimes the technicality of the work can take its space >> but it really also is about that people choose to do that technical work here because they want be part of something bigger and really are committed to the mission and committed to doing the work for schools and for our for our learners. >> And what I really like is that when they see learners, they see the full scope of learning. Sometimes people in their silos can be in that specific space. But when you serve every employee in the district, you are well aware that yes, there is a a an assignment that is associated for um adult basic education as well as um individuals who travel to homes when there are birth needs. for some families that have um young kiddos with disabilities that we serve right around birth. So, they really see the full scope of services that the district provides because they're really essential in making sure they happen. >> Well, thank you for leading the team. >> Thank you all. >> Uh cheer, can I ask a quick question? I'm sorry, Nick. I know you're ready to leave. Absolutely. Um I just have one quick question. Is there a way that um the the hiring process could be expedited at all? What I mean by that is what I'm seeing like with the current workforce is that folks are, you know, like um applying for jobs and like they get the job and they have to wait for like weeks until they start and all the things, right? And folks are kind of like in a crisis right now. So, is there any way to keep our district competitive by expediting that process a bit or does it depend on dates? >> Yep. depends on a couple sets of circumstances and it's an excellent question. It's always our goal to do that. >> Um, but as you're aware, part of some of the requirements number one that we have to have are the background checks and some of that set of conditions is really dependent on what information we can get depending on what sets of circumstances um kind of come into the work that we have to do to make sure that we do the diligence of checking those records. Um and so I would say number one that is a set of um conditions that can add some time to the process just because we have to make sure all those clearances happen. Um but what we try to do is make sure that we can advance that as fast as we can. Um we can have turnarounds as quick as four to five days depending on how much we need to do. Um, some of them depending on levels of searches and reference checks and responses can take a week or two weeks. Um, we try to make sure that we are in direct communication with employees as much as we can uh to do that work as as readily as we can but make sure that we do it diligently as well. >> Thank you so much. >> Thank you. others. >> That was it. >> Um I'm just grateful that um you're able to continue to do this work. I know that it's been a heavy lift and I also from an employee side and have heard um from other employees that the HR department here is really appreciated for the work that's done and in particular just a couple of the things you mentioned um making sure that Hopkins is treating our employees as individuals with needs and meeting them in really particular ways. So thank you for that. >> Thank you. >> Thank you. >> So that then um Oh, sorry. Did anyone have any comments or questions for Dr. Mary Perry Reed before we go? >> Thank you. Um so that takes us to our approval of tonight's agenda. Do I have a motion? >> So moved. >> I have a motion. Is there a second? Second. >> I have a motion and a second. Any discussion? Seeing none, all those in favor, please say I. >> I. >> Any opposed? The chair votes I. And the agenda for tonight is approved. And that [clears throat] takes us to the consent calendar. These are items that provide the board with information considered to be more routine in nature. If the board deems an item to be necessary for additional discussion, a motion will be made to move the item to new business. I would look for a motion to approve the consent calendar. >> Chair Andre. >> Yes, Director Xiao. >> I do have some questions about the transportation support contract. Um, just kind of like some background and uh some details around it. So would you like to make a motion to move the item or just wanted to do some discussion? >> I think some discussion probably would be fine if that's acceptable. Otherwise, we can I can ask for a movement to move it to new business. >> How would you like to do it? >> Either want to answer >> ask some questions. >> Sure, >> we can do that. >> Y Okay. Should I Should I just ask? >> Yes, please. Okay. All right. Great. Sorry. I'm not sure about the formality around it. So, >> I'm not either. >> Yeah. Uh [laughter] Okay. So, uh it looks like we're contracting with somebody, a consultant to help us with transportation, which I think is a good move for sure. I'm not questioning if it's needed or not. >> Um I'm curious about uh kind of the cost, right? So, it looks like we're projecting $125 an hour, but do we have a projection for how, you know, much time that's going to take? Is that is it like you know hundreds of hours or do you have a sense of that? >> Um thank you for the question and we did have a board member who sent in a couple of questions earlier via email. I apologize I should have forwarded the responses to all of you. So I just forwarded those responses to all of you. But to answer your question, Director Jiao, we are hoping, honestly, we're hoping that the total contract doesn't the total payout does not exceed around $50,000. But we are also recognizing that these deliverables are critical to the um success of our organization and transportation services. So, we also don't want to limit ourselves, but we are going to watch it very closely, and we've committed to a milestone check-in around $25,000. And then we're also committed to sending um monthly updates to cabinet and school board so that you know what's been worked on and what's ahead. >> Okay, perfect. And then I guess second the second question is I know we had some consulting um services around transportation before. So is this in conjunction with that replacing that or or what's the kind of do we have I think CISO also helping as well or is that one over? >> No, CISO is only doing finance. So I would say neither replacing nor in conjunction. So, we did have the transportation arm of CISO help us last spring. They performed the transportation audit and then they helped us with routing. Um, and we did want to move in a different direction, hiring um somebody who specifically had director of transportation experience. And um that is who this individual is. He is not connected to CISO and we are not continuing with CISO transportation support. >> Okay. Okay. That's all I had. Y thank [clears throat] you. >> Any other questions? >> Okay. With that, um, I would look for a motion to approve the consent calendar. >> So move. >> I have a motion. Is there a second? >> Second. >> I have a motion and a second. Any discussion? >> Seeing none, all those in favor, please say I. >> I. I. >> Any opposed? The chair votes I. And the consent calendar is approved. And that takes us to our treasures report. Treasurer Hartland. >> Good evening. Um, typically at this point I have a bigger picture type contextual report to give you and I don't have that this evening. So, thank you for accommodating me in that and you can all expect a more full report next meeting, but we will review a few key or new expenses from the treasures report posted in the agenda. Um, as a reminder, this is a more [clears throat] lengthy list of non-payroll expenses than the typical report because this covers all of October 2025 rather than that more typical twoeek time frame we'll return to after the new year. And again, I don't know, my voice just did something weird tonight while I was here. So, that's exciting. Water. >> No, I'm okay. I have a drink. Thank you. I appreciate it. Um, we spent $4,453 on paper. Just paper. In the month of October, we paid McFale Center for the Arts um $1,596 for instruction that they provided to the high school jazz band and also $870 to Guthrie Theater for a field trip to see A Christmas Carol. And it's important to remember that some expenses that appear on our check registers are, of course, their checks written by the district, but they're from accounts funded by student and family fees or they're reimbursed by one grant or another. And and both of those expenses I just listed are covered by those scenarios. Dash Sports is a Minnesota company that provides community ed classes and clinics and a variety of sports. Uh we paid them $7,548 for youth sports clinics in September and October. Instructure received $83,648 for Canvas, our district-wide learning management system. We paid bilingual therapies $19,223.90 for contracted speech and language therapists and pathologists. Um Belders LLC is a newer vendor. It's a Minnesota based company that provides food service equipment and supplies. So we paid them $12,717 for various kitchen small wares was listed repeatedly on our um check register and those were spoons, pans, food storage for our various kitchens. Um Kelly Services is the parent company of teachers on call. So we paid $128,890 for substitute teachers. We paid Minnesota State Colleges $10,558 for the Grow Your Own program. Um, a program under the Minnesota Department of Education, which is a partnership between districts and and teacher preparatory programs. And so, the purpose of that program is to help community members become qualified teachers and then return to their community to teach in public education. Harley Hopkins Early Childhood Center received some overdue updates to cabinets and and spaces there. We paid $127,65844 that project, but there were many other construction projects on this expense report for your perusal, including some Tanglin upgrades that assistant director Mazali discussed at this table earlier. Uh we paid Reed Behavioral Health $18,300 for their chemical and addiction health services. In our secondary level, we paid a community ed instructor $200 for teaching two different community ed classes, Cookie Monsters and Great Minnesota Hot Dishes. And such providers and classes appear all over the every expense report. And so this is a fantastic way that the district interacts with our community members of all ages and backgrounds. And if anyone listening wants to become a community ed teacher and teach their own hot dishes class, uh you can learn how at communityed.hopkinschool. hopkinschools.org. Um, for workers comp, we paid SFM Mutual $45,552. And with that, I move that we approve total dispersements in the amount of $4,667,000. 4,667,841.76 for the period of October 1st to October 31st, 2025. >> I have a motion. Is there a second? >> Second. >> I have a motion and a second. Any discussion? >> Chair Andre? >> Yes. Clerk Thompson. >> Um, thank you, Treasurer Harland. A very long report, but I appreciate the things you pulled out for us. Just one quick question. Um, I noticed, uh, Clifton Larson Allen, our former auditor, who we're now having helped prepare the material for this audit that we're working on right now. um you know fairly significant amount of of money there. Do you does do you see that being done like after this um amount and and when that audit finishes up or or will that type of payment continue? Do you know? >> Um you're right. Those are fairly significant expenses. I don't know if I'm prepared to answer that at this moment. [laughter] Do we need to follow back on that or do you think >> and that's okay if we follow up later? But >> the >> Yeah, like specifically um CLA has >> what dates of service? Sorry. >> Yeah. >> What dates of service for the 86 the 42k? >> Yeah. And this report is the entire month of October, >> right? >> Yeah. We we may have to get back to you on the details of that. We can send it to the whole board. >> Thank you. >> I can. >> But the but we will continue to work with CLA and so we can get clarity on kind of what that work will look like going forward. That would be great >> because I'm assuming it's going to be less intense and less expensive, but we can get back to you. >> Okay. Thank you. So for for clarity's sake, CLA is our um organization who is working on our audit specifically. Correct. >> Yes. They help us prepare the materials for the audit to be finalized by KDV. >> So the >> and KDV is another company that we pay to do our >> correct. Correct. So they review and finalize and CLA prepares and submits to KDV. >> Can you nod if I'm saying that correctly, Dr. Lightfoot? Two thumbs up. >> Okay. And that's on top of CISO who we're paying for business services. >> Correct. CIFO CISO is like our CFO. They're our director of business services finance. Yes. >> Thank you. >> Yes. >> Any further discussion? Seeing none, all those in favor, please say I. >> I. >> Any opposed? The chair votes I. And the treasur's report is passed. Thank you, Treasure Hartland. >> That takes us to our first order of new business, which is the enrollment update. Um, this is for discussion purposes and no action will be taken. Um, I would invite the team up to the table and turn it over to Dr. Mary Perry Reed. >> Thank you, Chair Andre. So, um, as our presenters are approaching the table, I'll just provide a framing. So, as our school board knows, every year around this time after the October 1st state attendance report has been submitted and we've had enough time to study how our current enrollment compares to what we previously projected, we do provide an enrollment update to our school board and then to SEFAC. So for this report um what you'll hear and find are a mix of strengths and challenges in our data and it's really important to understand the broader context that shapes our numbers. So uh for example like districts across Minnesota and the nation we are navigating historically low birth rates. Um, in particular, what we face here in the West Metro is fierce competition from neighboring districts, private schools, and charters. And overall, you'll see very flat or stable enrollment from FY16 to FY26. So that's 10 years of very stable flat enrollment. And yeartoyear, there are blips that we want to pay attention to. So with that frame with that framing I want to turn it over to our three presenters. So our director of communications and marketing Jolene Goldadi also provides oversight for the enrollment team which um we're very thankful to you Jolene for taking on enrollment into that space so that communications and marketing and enrollment all work together. And then Carly Norling is our business analyst. So she does um costing for our um negotiations processes and also works on enrollment and lots of other businessy things data and then uh we all know Dr. Lightfoot. So here we go with I think Jolene and Carly you're going to present and Nick also. >> Yes plan. Thank you for being here and thank you for all the work that goes into putting together the slide deck. >> Thank you, Dr. Reid. Um so, um it's good to be here with you tonight and as Dr. Reid said, this is um a pretty comprehensive report and also a bit of a a limited report in that we have a lot of questions I think that we want to dig into after presenting this data to you and we'd be interested to get your questions as well um of what you would like us to look further into. Um so when we look at our enrollment trends um across the board at sort of that high level um there are factors that are stable and then some things that we're noticing that are changing a little bit. So one thing that um is pretty stable as Dr. Reid has mentioned is our um enrollment is is flat and flat is not a bad place to be um because it's that that's sort of the stable steady um uh place and that's where we continue to be where we've been for some time. Um, another thing that continues to be really consistent is our kindergarten Spanish immersion. There continues to be strong interest for that. Um, and open enrollment in and out remains mostly steady. Um, you're going to see a slight increase of open enrollment out. However, one thing I would mention and will be mentioning throughout this report is that we currently have more um, open enrollment in than we are able to accommodate. meeting that we have waiting lists at um at some of our elementary schools, Metobrook in particular, and then all of our secondary schools at every grade level have waiting lists. So, just to put that in context um for the In and Out, some factors that we are seeing that are changing. Um this is the lowest birth year as Dr. Reed had um had already mentioned. I know we've mentioned this at the board table before too because these are our co babies coming into um kindergarten and as we know COVID wasn't really a baby boom time. So this is you know we're probably going to see I I think that the birth rate stays somewhat low um for a few years here. Um there is increased open enrollment desire especially on the east side of our district um that we've seen um just really kind of increased to levels I don't think I have seen before personally. And then there's increased interest at our secondary programs. As I said, we have waiting lists at every grade level in our secondary schools. Chinese immersion um enrollment is declining. However, there is a really great bright spot that I would like to share um about some preschool potential being really strong. And so later on the presentation, I'll I'll walk through why that is such a really great sign for us. If you can go to the next slide. Um so in Hopkins, we have a we have had always a competitive environment. We are located very centrally. We are surrounded by um Adina, Weisetta, and Minnotonka. And what you're looking at there on that slide is um districts that are outside of our boundaries, but uh uh but schools that are very close to our boundaries. So, sorry, I'm actually pointing with my pen here. I'm going to put that down. It's too tempting. Um so what you're seeing there is like close to the boundaries that in some cases um the school next to the boundary line is perhaps closer than the school in Hopkins. We also have a number of private and charter schools within our district. So we have always been in a state of just competition. It's just been the game for us for a long time ever since I've been here and longer than that. Um the other thing um if you remember there was an article earlier this fall and and um it was about open enrollment and Hopkins was noted as one of the few and unusual districts that has was noted for its high open enrollment in and its high open enrollment out. So that is that's just sort of the the place that we we are and we have been in for for a long time because of the nature of our district, our proximity and the shape and sort of like that 30 mile distance between Golden Valley and Minnotonka. Um if you want to go to the next slide, I think Dr. Lightfoot takes the next two. >> Yeah. So when you look at this just doesn't it jump out as thrilling? [cough and clears throat] [laughter] When you look at it, you see pretty much that stable line, that stable block. Um, but the reason that I say that, you know, in a little bit of just and a little bit of certainty, part of what you see here as you look at it is really kind of the general picture of the stability that we've been talking about. But in all of that stability that we look at, part of the work of enrollment is looking at the descriptive nature as well as the predictive nature because we use it for both. When we think about what information we bring to the board, we are fortunate enough to have really strong data sets over really the periods of time that we've been collecting and analyzing and working through such that even as a block like this that looks pretty consistent, pretty stable, pretty, you know, kind of as you will um the annual look and review may seem like it is pretty much run-of-the-mill. there really is an incredible nuance to it that really does have a strong impact to the district. So while you do see this level of stability that really helps us look at our present set of operations, it also is really based on a lot of the predictive work that goes in. Um so with that um the next slide is just an example of some of that. Um, and when we we look at where we are with projections, um, the incredible work that Carly does in looking at all of the detailed sets of information that go into this from our MARS reports that we file with MDE, that all districts, public districts file with MDE, charters file with MDE. that set of data comes in and much of our set of data as you're aware is based on that October one single date point in time and then from that data set we look at all of the other corresponding pieces of information that really become relevant for us in different ways. If we think about the enrollment big picture that's here, a lot of this work is the predictive nature of where are we now and where do we think we will be next year. And as you're aware in the budgeting process, one of the [clears throat] key elements that goes into the budget models are the five-year enrollment projections. Well, those five-year enrollment projections are really based on the data set that we have now, the previous sets of information we've had from the four-year cohort advancement models that we take a look at. So, we utilize those sets of information to come in and then make our best work. If you look at where we thought we were with the K12 aggregate enrollment projections at that 6776 looking at where did we think we would be and then where are we actually when we look at that 10125 and you're going to see that less than 1% of our projection when we really were looking at where do we see these numbers coming in. we see that being pretty much on par where we thought and then the real detailed work of yep that consistent block of information really gets drilled down into the level of detail that becomes important. So, what we're starting to see based on that October set of information is that we have some particular areas that we want to look at in more detail so that we can feel good about the projections that we're looking to make when we give you that set of information and really develop that next set of budget projections. And the other thing that this drives is when we think about where this is coming from, what do we need to pay particular attention to? One of those spots that we are seeing and it's always the difficult spot to predict is kindergarten. And the reason it's difficult is because when we do cohort advancement, we kind of have years of experience around how many students from grade 1 metriculate into grade two. We've got great data sets there. The hard data set is kindergarten because we don't always know who's here. We get some estimates from Henipin County birth records. Um Carly's got a lot of you know knowledge about those data sets that really come in through zip code information and whatnot. We use models that help us with that but that can eb and flow in any given year. But what we are starting to watch when we look at that kindergarten and we'll go through that in a little bit more detail is this was one of the spaces where we started to say this number jumps out a little bit. There can always be variance but this one had a little bit more variance than we typically see. Um, so even though that number may look like the 30s, it is one that we want to watch because overall we do want to make sure that when we do our staffing and we do our budget planning that we're mindful of what that impact has so that we can be efficient and effective with the resource that we have. As you'll know, we do that for all grade levels. When we start to look at that, some grade levels rise, we get more, some leave. We know a lot of that can be based on mobility. Um and we'll also speak to a little bit about what information we collect there. Next slide. >> Okay. So when we look at kindergarten as um Dr. Lightfoot um said we I mean that that number does stand out as just a little bit um you know like like a bit of an anomaly even knowing that projections are projections and kindergarten is really hard to project. Um so we have 494 as of October 1st um in enrolled in kindergarten. our projection was 532. That puts us at about 38 down um from what we believed our projection would be. You can go to the next slide. Um and what you're looking at here is is really kind of an illustration of what Dr. Lightfoot was just mentioning is that um kindergarten is the you know it is the hardest to predict. And what you're looking at is 10 years of um projections versus actuals. And what you'll see is that um six out of those 10 years we were above projection and four out of those 10 years we were below projection. We have never been exactly on projection because it's it's it's really difficult to be like exactly right on. Um but we always are like kind of at least you know in the ballpark of it. Um you can go to the next slide. And so when we look at this actually has 496 as our number. This be this is because this number was pulled on November 3rd and not October 1st. So, and that just kind of demonstrates that this number is always changing. People are moving in. It's it's increasing. It's declining. It really depends upon the day. So, as we're presenting mostly October 1 numbers to you, unless otherwise noted, that's just important to know, too. So, when we look at our actual kindergarteners of 496, we have 394 who are enrolled in what what we'd call traditional um uh kindergarten, and we have 27 enrolled in Chinese immersion. We have 50% or 50 enrolled in um Eisenhower Spanish immersion and 25% enrolled in Spanish immersion at Alice Smith. That's a perfect three section and one section um and I don't know what 394 how many sections that is off the top of my head. Um but we can go to the next slide. Um so as we have um kind of thought about that kindergarten information number um there are a couple reasons why we believe at least of you know as the sort of obvious guesses of why this number is a little bit um lower than we would expect. The first is the one that we've mentioned many times is that the low birth rate um is for sure affecting things. There's just less kindergarteners out there to get and that of course has an impact. Um the other thing that's important to note is that we were working on a collocation study last winter kind of almost into the spring where we were studying to see if immersion should move to one location. The reason why this is important and its impa on its impact in enrollment is because we weren't able to make offers to those who had applied for our programming until we knew what location we could give them. And so that meant we were making offers in about um kind of like that late to midFebruary time, mid to late February time when the rest of our you know the surrounding districts many of whom offer Spanish immersion as an option were making those choices are making those offers much earlier probably because they also know that this is historically low birth year and they were try you know like everybody's just trying to capture what they can. Um, so this meant that even though we had a hundred um apply for our Huntos program, which is four sections, um, give or take, we, um, were actually only able to place about 75 because they had or people had already made other offers. Um, and we decided it would just be safer to go with a three section for staffing rather than a four, but we initially um, anticipated a four section. So that's one thing that we believe had an impact. The other thing is that on our east side we are seeing um just a very um increased desire to come into Hopkins Metobrook in particular because it's it's on the district the clo in the closest proximity to um to the east side. Um this year we had 134 students that were at one time on our on the Metobrook waiting list um which is much higher than what we have seen in the past. We were able to place 77 of them. So you know we we have more people wanting to come in than we are able to place. So that's another factor. Um and then the other factor that that I I believe had a role I'm not sure to what extent is um this our shift of start times of course and um our reduction of some transportation services. Um the reason why we believe it could have had an impact is because when we look at our exit surveys that did come up as one of um it wasn't a high reason why people left the district but it certainly was on there. So we can that wouldn't necessarily impact kindergarten because they wouldn't have taken an exit survey but we can apply that information you know to kindergarten and say that it likely had an impact. Um so if we want to go to the next slide I think this is where I turn it to you Carly. >> Sure. [clears throat] Okay, this slide shows our open enrollment in and these are other districts students choosing Hopkins and this year we have seen a decrease in 48 students from last year to this year but otherwise looks pretty stable. Next slide. And then on this slide, this shows our top six incoming districts. So, Minneapolis public schools being our top incoming district and um Robinsdale is our second and St. Louis Park, OIO, Weisetta, and then Eden Prairie. And we have um scholars open enrolling into our district from 38 different school districts. Next slide. Um this slide shows our open enrollment out and um this is and same with the last slide that I showed you is using October one data and our number has um gone from 1,94 students open enrolling out last year to 293 this year. Next slide. And these are our top four districts where our students are going. Minotona, Edina, Eden Prairie, and St. Louis Park. This um these four districts represent 90% of our total open enrollment out. Um thank you. This slide shows our um charter enrollment out. are students that are going to charter schools and we have seen a decrease in nine students. So we are um we have nine less students going to charter school this year than we did last year. But the number is also stable and hasn't really changed over the last six years, seven years. And then the last slide, this one shows our um top five charter schools out where our students are going to charter schools and that is Eagle Ridge, Scitec, ESLA, Minnesota Transitions, Agamim Classical Academy and these top five recomments. Okay, we want to end on a on a high note with our bright spots and there are there are bright spots to look at um within this data. So, if we want to go to the next slide, um the first thing I want to bring up is virtual edu. So, you may remember that we have changed the we changed the model this year of virtual edu. We um removed the K to in um as part of the programming because it we just weren't seeing the enrollment that we we had hoped to. So right now we offer 35 online only which allows us to focus our blended program on 612 um which allows us to capture bring in more um in the in the blended space. And so um if you like we are I I'll back up a little bit and explain what blended means just as a reminder. It means that there's um learning in person and also online. So virtual edu is running that track as well as online only for 612. Um, [snorts] and I believe that we're the only, we continue to remain the only district in Minnesota that offers a blended program as a choice. Um, and what we're seeing is that enrollment is increasing not only year-over-year, but month over month. So, these are some exciting gains. Virtual edu, um, as I've said before, doesn't really follow a a traditional um enrollment pattern. It kind of follows its own pattern. Um, and what we actually expect to see is enrollment starting to increase after the school year starts, which is just not really how it works at any other type of school. Um but what we are seeing is that um because we've been able to just really focus in on our um on our increased capac capacity and also just like this um kind of focused promotion on this 612 which is really um kind of the demographic who are the age that's most interested in the in virtual edu. We're seeing some exciting spikes. We have 182 enrolled in the program currently as of um November um uh whatever we are at today and that's almost um matching where we were in May at the end of the year. And so if we apply that 40% um sort of increase that on average virtual edu increases throughout the year, we're hoping to see even more gains. So that's something that we are watching very closely and we are, you know, just really excited that we're continuing to figure out the patterns and the um desire for this type of programming, but certainly it seems to be there. Next slide. Um okay. And so there are um you know like there's a couple of of trends I think that kind of are are in in in our favor and some solutions that are really like we're really able to to leverage them quite quickly. So the one is that um there's a strong interest in the idea of a Chinese immersion program which we're likely going to start this um next year. So one of the things that we noticed as we were studying um Chinese immersion is that one the sort of the the pie of um families who are interested in Chinese immersion seems to be shrinking from from where it was. So there's there's there's less families maybe than than there were when we started the program that that have that strong interest. However, when we looked at the um search engine data and how people were looking for Chinese immersion, they were looking for preschool as their entry point. So we wondered, you know, if we started a preschool program, would we have the interest there? Could we use that as the starting point for um for Chinese immersion? And so in partnership with our Jing Jing families who are really dedicated and um to the program and also like to to this idea of having um a a preschool program, we now have a list of 48 families who are interested in um preschool as an option. That is a really good and strong number. Um and it and it tells us that we can use that as or we're hoping to use that as a feeder option to continue to um bring our Chinese immersion kindergarten enrollment back to what we expected back to sort of that two section level. That's going to take some time um which we knew it would because um in general the Jing Jing planning or the Jing Jing demographic is you know they are there are families who plan they they don't make this decision um overnight. is something that they make at like when their child is 2 or 3 years old. So, we are really excited about that number and find that really promising. Um, our kindergarten information night, as was mentioned in Dr. Reed's presentation, had a really great turnout. Um, it was very fun and lots of energy and enthusiasm for Hopkins. That's always great to see. We opened enrollment um for next year on that night and we already have 139 kindergarteners who are excited to join Hopkins Public Schools next year. Um and our current weight list at the secondary levels are strong. So these are all really good indicators of um you know like things positive things that we can lean into and we have some solutions that are within our control. This year we do not have a collocation study and we can absolutely make offers to immersion families as you know as quickly as we possibly can to make sure we're able to capture as many as possible. Um we would like to centralize some aspects of the enrollment process especially at the beginning stages um when we have more flexibility to make offers faster and just to get people in place sooner. And then um we would like to offer priority enrollment for um those enrolled in our preschool programs. Those families have already made a relationship with that school and for them to want to stay is only makes sense. So we would like to um prioritize that um as well as an enrollment strategy. In addition, there are some other strategies that we're currently working on with our district enrollment team and in partnership with our leaders that are not part of this because they're still sort of a little bit in progress, but I wanted to present at least the [clears throat] high level um solutions we were working on. And we can go to the next slide. Um that is the end of our presentation and um we will take your questions. >> Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Yes, director Roer. >> Thank you all for excuse me. [clears throat] Thank you all for presenting that critical information. As you know, open enrollment is a big conversation right in our community and I think this um can help with uh mitigating some of those some of the misinformation that may be out there. Um and so I just have two quick questions for you. One, is there any talks or highle um review into the early entrance process? So, is that something that we can look at or have considered as a um detriment to kindergarten enrollment? So, um I know that's something that my daughter went through and it was kind of like loops and loops and loops of going through and her birthday was September 6th and the requirement for you to be in kindergarten September 1st and so I know that that can also deter families if a lot of families don't know about that process and then every school board is required to have a policy. So, I don't know if we can promote that policy this year or [clears throat] if we can just share that on our social medias about this um being available to families because like I said, I don't think families know. And then the second question was um uh the second question was I just forgot my second question so fast. Um if if it comes to me, I'll ask it, but I was just wondering about the early entrance process. I can I can answer that question and if it comes to you um feel free to jump in. >> Um so early entrance, yes, totally. I I completely agree with you on that. We actually have just finished up um a video um with Sarah and Jim Hisen who is amazing on video um talking about that that um as an option and we we'll be promoting that on social media and other channels to give it more um to to to help it be more wellknown because I do like it it was something that kind of lived in a few different spaces prior to um now. So that's definitely something that we are attempting to streamline. I think that was based on feedback that you shared last year too. So >> Oh, like we we're listening to you. >> Oh, thank you. Oh, another question now. Um, is there a high again like another highle thought about with the with the low birth weight rates, right? We don't know if it's going to increase in the coming years, especially just looking at some of the statistics around like marriages and things like that. So like is there any is there like is public education thinking differently about um enrollment given that the birth rates are uncertain in this moment? Like we don't know if it's going to increase or decrease. Has there been any talks about that at like a legislator or like state or federal level at all? I know it's something that's happened across the board and nation. >> I don't know. But that's a really good point. I I wish we were having that conversation. I I think what I feel like we're doing maybe more is like a mad scramble for kids and that would probably be a more productive conversation especially knowing that kids are coming in just needing more right now. Um so maybe yeah that would be a wonderful conversation to have to focus on maybe getting some more funding and not having to scramble so much. >> Thank you. >> Any other questions? >> Chair Andre. >> Yes, Director Xiao. >> Yes. Hi. Thanks for sharing this information. Uh I think everybody knows here that this is the lifeblood of the district of any district. Um so one uh two questions. Um one is so I know we have an open and uh we have a wait list for the um the middle and higher and high school. Um was is there consideration for if they have a sibling that's especially a kindergartener that we would just be like okay you get priority and we package together. Is that >> Yep. We absolutely give. So, we have um kind of a a a weighted lottery process um I think is how you would say it. So, we um would prioritize any anybody who has a sibling. So, if you're um I guess you'd be open enrolling. So, if you open enroll and you have a sibling, you have higher priority than if you were just open enrolling. Um if if if that answers your question. >> Okay. So, if they had like a kindergartenner, we would take them guaranteed. not guaranteed if they're open enrolled because we I think I'm so are you saying like if there's we have somebody at the high school there that student is open enrolled and then their kindergarten sibling is also open enrolling in so they're applying >> or they so they they apply right so maybe they apply at at the middle at the middle school level right so I'm just trying to think like you know probably timing right you had a kid earlier and then a little bit later right so they're on the wait list at middle at m like west or north and then they have a they have a kindergartener sibling, >> right? Like we need to get that kindergarter sibling. So like would we guarantee them in? Like that's why I'm saying we need to guarantee them in. Right. >> We we we give them higher priority and that's something that we like strongly encourage. Like that's often like a like we're always like sort of like there's a lot of like back and forth with principles [clears throat] and you know just and siblings is one where we will advocate pretty hard because we don't want the families to be split. So, um, there will be a lot of like, can you just take, especially at the secondary level, like, can you just take one more because this one's a sibling. So, for sure, we're always looking at that. They do get higher priority by by default. Um, and it's something we always like really strongly encourage. We're always looking at, you know, we want to stay within policy and we want to be fair and we're looking we're always thinking like what's best for the family, too. So, I mean, those are just things that we're weighing as we're um as we're working through the enrollment process. >> Okay. Yeah, I mean to me I would think well you have a kindergarter you're in right like why it's not really a decision right but okay >> and then secondly um I am very concerned about this uh you know increasing open enrollment out right so we're at a 237 delta and it seems to be increasing year-over-year um pretty soon that's going to be something that we're going to have to you know we're going to start losing our resources and so um you know uh I I don't Oh, is there a plan that's more than just we're going to do things a little bit faster, right? Like it seems like we have to do something a little bit more drastic. >> If if I may, Director Xiao, I didn't understand what 237 delta means. >> So la so this year or last year we had 189 leave and we uh plus 189 leave, right? So that's plus 189 and then we had uh 48 less open enroll in. So if you add those two, that's the delta, right? between kids coming in, kids going out, right? And it seems to be at least linearly increasing going out and so you know, next year if it's like now 400, we have a real problem. So I don't know like what's the plan, right? And it to me it needs to be a little bit more than like we're going to do things quickly. >> Well, I can offer a few I can offer a few things that might help. Um nothing is a plan because I think we would need more more partners with us in this um but what I can share is that we have um increased desire to open and roll in on the east side where we're not able to place. So that that there's for sure something that could you know could happen there. I don't know what that is because there is only so much one school can take and you don't want things completely unbalanced. But certainly there is a desire to come into Hopkins that we're not able to accommodate at the east side level and at the secondary level. So that's that's one thing I would bring up. Um the other thing I would say is that um one thing we're looking into is um how many of the open and roll out are siblings. So, for example, um we know that we had a little bit more of an uptick in families who chose Minnotonka this year compared to other years. So, what I really want to know is like how many of those have a sibling already in Minnetonka? To your point about um you know, like you you the the whole family is going to choose if if one um child goes to Minnotonka or goes to whatever district that's not us or is us um it's likely they're going to want their sibling in that district, too. So those are those are um students that I would that we maybe would assume that would be very hard to get anyway. However, if it comes back and that's not a lot, you know, like it's only half sibling and the rest are new, that's that's indicative of a of a different type of problem because it is it's sort of a generational thing. You lose the family for life most likely, especially when you lose them at kindergarten. So it's I don't know what the urgency is on that number yet, but that's one thing I want to look into. And I know Carly had some another data point about open enrollment too that that could be of interest to you. >> I did look at some of our open enrollment out and compared it to our last year's resident elsewhere report and our um Mars report and those are both endofear reports and there's 132 kids that were not on those reports. So that tells us that these kids are moving into our district and it's the mobility of our community. So 132 of those students were not um served by us last year and they were not on our resident elsewhere report. So they're newly on that report this year. And then sorry I didn't. So that's 46% I'll just say that >> 46% of the students >> the open enrollment out. >> Correct. >> Okay. >> Yep. So what we're saying is 40% of the students who open enrolled out are not necessarily students that we would have had anyway. Correct. Either we have never served them or we did not serve them last year and they were not on our resident elsewhere report last year either. And that's as far as I was able to get. Um I will continue to analyze pri pre. But last year they were not on our either of our reports. >> And can you just briefly describe the resident elsewhere report? >> Sure. It's a MARS report that shows where our students are if they're not being reported by us. So that's the where the way the report that we receive every month. Um and that has all of our students being served by other districts or charter schools. So of their of the new students that we have 40 or 46% of the new students were not on our reports last year. Meaning they families could have moved into our district and kept their same school district or have moved in and they were and already in a private or prochial school or already in that charter school that they are enrolled in for this year. >> See um chair Andre. >> Yes. Treasure Heartland. >> Um, Director Guldata, you mentioned a max for open enrollment in and and weight lists. How is that max decided? Is it physical capacity, teaching staff? >> All of the above. So it is um staffing, it is um physical capacity, it is budget, it is um it's kind I mean it can be um if we it's also a bit of sectioning too because at a certain point, you know, if we had 79 students enrolled in um Spanish immersion and we had to divide by 25 or something like that, then we would have, you know, like really like unefficient class sizes, I guess. So, so there are there there are just a lot of factors that go into it. That is why I think if we're able to move faster as a strategy, at least as one strategy, maybe not the full solution, um but we would we can place we we can take people and accept people before we have made staffing decisions and we can make staffing decisions based on them. But after we've made staffing decisions, then it's kind of just working with what we have, you know? So, even if we have people on the waiting list, it's like, well, we don't have the teachers or we're going to max out our, you know, like our our um class cap if we if we take them. So, that's the conundrum we end up being in where it's where, you know, it doesn't always serve us just to take everybody. And that's why you'll see on one of the slides, even though we have waiting list at the secondary, you know, we're a little bit off our projection at the the middle school level, like seventh grade, not anything that would be like that would stand out, but that's why you can't just necessarily take the students and just put them over there because you might not have have room because of sectioning and because of how the SK the master schedule works. So, it doesn't always work out, especially later into the year. >> Okay. Um, and as a second question, is there room as part of the strategy? Is there room for more aggressive and earlier marketing to you know especially as we look at decreased birth rates like getting you know k families with really young children involved in our community in some way shape or form earlier and just more efficiently. I know I've said this at the table several times but just that like telling our story and us being the people that set the tone for it is is that being looked at too. >> Absolutely. I mean that's always a part of our strategy and I think some of the some of the solution it it it can't just be marketing alone because when we look at our data points it's like well we are we are getting them like the goal was to get them to this event and then take this next step and you know so we are seeing um you know the the types of metrics we'd like to see there. However, if we take Jing Jing as an example and we look at like how much we really dug into a preschool engagement strategy and now we have this interest and so I I I absolutely think building those relationships um young, getting people to see themselves as part of Hopkins or wanting to do Hopkins as early as possible is beneficial for sure. Um and it could be something that we could apply more strategically. I was wondering um given that preschool the question I had was do we have capacity to host a preschool I'm assuming it would be at Eisenhower given that the immersion program is there or are we not at that stage yet >> do we have capacity to ho to host Chinese immersion preschool >> well we're going to build the capacity because we need it >> so it will require a reconfigur iguration of classroom space in Eisenhower because we will want them to be inside the the school >> part of this colllocated building. Um so it's some it's something that we're working on is identifying that space. >> Okay. Yeah. Because I do know that um a lot of feedback is because that school is housing so many programs that they are I feel kind of busting at the seams. So, that was my first question. I love the idea. I think it's exactly what's needed and just wondering what the capacity is realistically. Um, and then my my other question is as I'm listening to this and I' I've heard feedback from a number of community members, can you just give me an idea of how are exit interviews conducted and um who's who does those how are our fa our families contacted and what is that process like so that we can get an understanding of what um like I feel like we're basing a lot of our decisions on how to um deal with enrollment issues on those exit interviews. So, I'd like to get an understanding. >> How are they conducted? What's the process? >> Yeah, I can answer that. So we um everyone who had exited um the system and had not moved out of state um or country received a so this this started um this year and they would so if you were if you left any time last year um you would have received a survey probably in September or maybe end of August um unless you moved out of country are out of state um from us from Qualricx um we got the data we get the data from the Mars report which says that you've exited out and it comes via email so if you were to if you left the year before that I I'm you know our process might have been I think we were doing them but more in a test capacity and we also had some um leadership changes in the enrollment office so I can't guarantee that that as consistent, but I we did um send out a survey to everybody who left last year and then moving forward um there will be like every 30 days we issue we look at who has left and then we send out that survey. Um we also do the same thing for families who um in district transfer to another school because we want to sort of get a sense of like are there anything is there anything that we need to be paying attention to here? Is there a pattern? Is there a reason why we're seeing an exit from this um school? Although we're really happy they are at another Hopkins school, we still want to get a sense of what's happening. So, we're doing it in two spaces. Then, we share that with leadership and with principles to review. Um, and there is um probably about 15 questions total with a lot of room for open-ended um questions. Now, I will say the response rate is at least initially when we we did that big batch from last year, it was about 28% and it's and we just did a batch and so far we haven't had a response. So, those exit surveys do need to be taken with somewhat of a grain of salt because it's not like a you not everybody responds to them. And typically, if you're responding, you you have kind of a you have some stuff to say, which is great. We want to hear that, but also we need to weigh that with, you know, okay, this is only this is only a um a a small population of all who left. >> Does that answer your question? >> Yeah, it does. And I am wondering like um so that's at the district level. >> Um and perhaps we might want to think as a district like what kind of communications and supports are given to families that are considering leaving at the site level. Um, and what do those exit interviews look like? Are they happening? Are families even hearing from the administration at their sites? Um, >> and when you say considering leaving, like when we have an indication that a family isn't happy and we're immediately in looking into what the >> circumstances might be and how we can partner with that family, >> right? and the the school certainly is aware when records are requested to be transferred. And I think at that point, >> it's kind of too late. >> What are we doing? >> Yeah. >> Um are we reaching out to that family? >> Um I think we might want to consider what that looks like. >> Um just because you might be more apt [snorts] to get a response at that point than waiting >> six months to a year. >> Oh yeah, for sure. like I don't think we want to that's not our ideal state. Um we want to make sure that we at least at the district level that we're sending them out like every every 30 days. That will be our process moving forward. And also I just think it's a good customer service thing to do. It's it's a big deal to leave your district. It's a big decision. Um and I think it's important that we reach out with care and wanting to really hear from you. I mean I just I just think that's an important >> thing to do. um regardless of how we even use the data, which we do use the data, but just it's you want people to notice you left, right? Like it matters. So, yeah. >> Yeah. Thanks for that. I can assure our board that our our principles, our school leaders know how important enrollment is and how important it is to to work with families so that um families feel that they are receiving highquality services and educational support for their kids. I do think that we're entering this space where the the work of a school leader and many of us is ever is is increasingly externally facing, right? And that that public engagement has to um continue to become an even more important segment of our work. And there's some training that I think we can continue to provide um to equip our school leaders with the skills and the dispositions for um for really connecting with families. Um to director Jiao's question, we do know that academic quality is the number one driver of enrollment decisions. And um when we talk about the success of our high school students, I think our community can see that after 13 years of being with us, our high schoolers are doing incredible things and achieving in incredible ways and how do we help our families understand what that like K12 experience looks like, right? so that they can see that high quality teaching and learning in math and in literacy and across all of the content areas are happening in our elementary schools and in middle school. And it's why we've started our monthly academic updates. And we're meeting regularly to ask ourselves like what is it that our families need to know and understand to be confident that Hopkins is providing an exceptional uh educational service to our students and what are all the things that we can do to attract new families. [snorts] And we're also reminded that it's that we we also can't do this work alone, right? Like we need champions and spokespersons and individuals in our community who can tell the story of how Hopkins Public Schools has impacted their child. Right? I was talking with a um a parent. I have a small group of parents that I am meeting with to help me and all of us understand like what are the different narratives and how might we engage differently with our community and this parent who has a middle schooler in Shing said oh I I didn't realize that there were some concerns all the people I know are very happy with Hopkins public schools right and so there are these different perspectives and we all have to lean in together to figure out how to shift and how to also continue um telling our our story in really intentional and powerful ways. So, it's a definitely a multi-pronged effort. >> Clerk Thompson, did you have a question? >> Yeah, I just had one question and um appreciate the um presentation and really this whole discussion been really good. I just have one more question on data sources of of things we're looking at and uh director Godaddy, I feel like I've asked at the table before, but when a family fills out that open enrollment form if they're leaving the district, are are we able to see on there like, you know, what choice they selected as as the factor? And then do we so if we can see that are we you know collating that and and and tracking that and um because I feel like that would be a good data point as well as far as like what's precipitating people if they choose elsewhere. >> Yeah, that is an excellent question. So um in the past I I don't know that we've had a good tracking mechanism for this. However, I do we we had this discussion today actually in preparation for this uh meeting with our enrollment manager and one of the things she's working to do is to um start a process like you know it's going to be sort of a heavy lift year to make sure that all is on record to make sure that we have it in Mars which basically just means that we're able to see you know like what h like with more discernment and digging deeper like where did you go did you have a sibling did you start here and then you because there's some questions that we have especially about like okay so we're starting to see more charter school um competition but is the behavior for charter school the same as the behavior for you know if you open enroll into a different district or is that more of a specialized thing or so we have a lot of questions that we want to answer um which isn't really your question but what I can tell you is like she's starting a process so moving forward we will be able to have that information we won't have it at this moment but We will probably have something to look at in the spring and then moving forward that will all be documented because we just need to be in that space where we know >> and right now we have hunches. We can we know some stuff but we're not we just we don't know enough and we we need to know the full picture. >> That's great. That's really helpful. And just to be clear, I mean do we have access to those open enrollment forms? >> I believe we I believe we do because they have to give us some sort they they have to like Yeah, we get like we get something from them. um saying, you know, and and of course they're they don't always say in detail why they're choosing. Sometimes it's just like academic choice or, you know, it's pretty vague, but we do get information from them [snorts] that is worth looking at and documenting. >> Right. Appreciate it. Thank you. >> Well, thank you. I just um I [snorts] guess I had more more of a comment just on the nature of open enrollment um in Minnesota. Um, I think that it creates a lot of the pressure that you were talking about before that it's highly competitive. Um, and also, uh, I I looked with interest at that article that you referenced, um, where Hopkins was kind of this unicorn almost of getting the same amount of enroll in as in roll out, which, um, and then I also looked at our our neighbors who are sporting huge open enrollment numbers in um, and I thought immediately that is unsustainable. Um, and it is. They are not basing their budget on reality of who lives in their district. And I want to remind people that the open enrollment laws changed about 10, 15 years ago in this state. And it has created this highly competitive environment where families feel pressure and are being openly marketed to by school districts. Like I I I believe that our dollars should be spent on quality programs and in the classroom, not in marketing to get more kids to come to our school. And I think there are districts that have a very different approach. So all that being said, um I there there are there is going to be a big change to the open enrollment laws in Minnesota. It's an outcome of the Cruz Groomsman lawsuit. Um this is coming. It's happening. And I think those districts who are relying on their huge open enrollment numbers are going to find themselves struggling to maintain. And I think that Hopkins has is in a a really great position to be able to maintain what we've been doing for families and um I like to see the stability. I realize none of us want to see that kids are leaving families are leaving the district. I don't like seeing that actually personto person when I encounter people that I know um that aren't able to stay. And so I just think we long-term and knowing the context is helpful. Um, open enrollment laws are changing and I think that's going to be for the good of families and for districts. there'll be a lot more continuity and um stability in in lives going forward and hopefully a lot less competitiveness because we should all be working together as districts, not competing for families. >> So, thank you for this. >> Well said. >> Um yeah, any further thoughts and thank you for all you do. I it is deeply appreciated. >> Thank you all so much. >> Thank you very much. >> Thank you. I think Assistant Superintendent Lightoot, do you get to stay with us? >> I believe I do. >> Oh, that's lovely. So, that takes us to our second read of the uh school year 2627 calendar. I'll turn it over to Dr. Mary Perry Reed >> and I'll turn it over to Dr. late, but great. [laughter] >> We did have first read at the last board meeting and >> I don't know if you've had additional staff or leaders review, but you can comment on >> Yep. The uh piece that's identified in the materials, what um was confirmed is the move of the April 5th date to March 26th. So that is really the specific change that we'd be looking at to um respond to the alignment um information and feedback that we got about um term three ending right before winter break and making sure that we uh utilize that um March 26th as the grading day and uh any professional development on that day so that we would look at the return back on April 5th. Other than that um the document stands as was originally presented. So with that um that is the only thing as was presented in first read that we now have solidified for second. Otherwise there are no changes. There are questions or additional comments. Happy to take those at this time. >> Chair Andre. >> Yes. Director West Morland. >> I'm wondering if there will be any puns in this part. >> Yeah. >> The presentation. >> Where' the puns go? >> It's too late. [laughter] >> Experiencing pun. >> No puns after >> pun withdrawal. No >> pun [snorts] withdrawal. thank you for for your work on this and for the team's work on it. Um, and I've had several schoolboard members from other districts reach out to say, "What do you what are you doing in Hopkins for your calendar?" And when I show it to them, they're like, "Wow, that that makes sense." Um, so so our work is um being used to inform how um some of our surrounding school districts, schoolboard members are thinking about calendaring. So, thank you. >> I agree. Um, I appreciate all the work that that is put into this. I know it's not easy. There's a lot of different interests um to be taken into account. One, um, feedback that I did get, and I'm sure you're taking this into account as well, um, but that I was told that often with Eid, the the timing can be unpredictable. And so, um, best practice is to kind of hold the days on either side as a possibility for, um, >> either not doing important events or or things like that. So, I don't know if that's a consideration behind the days in our [clears throat] calendars or if it's, >> you know, communication we send to our administrators. >> Exactly. and I and you know our staff and really trying to identify for folks that you know obviously there are limitations as we look at you know we have to identify specific dates so that people can plan accordingly and we can look at programming and at the same time we can ask for the understanding especially as you've identified if this date is is set and we know that there is variation before and after how do we work with our instructors so that they know that That is an impact that we have to be planful for. So that if there are instructional modifications, assessment modifications, other practices that we can be doing to recognize that around that time, it's just good planning and we can be mindful in that message as we put that out to staff. >> Great. Thank you. >> And I believe this is an action item. >> It is. Wonderful. So, with that, I would look for a motion to approve the um 2026 2027 school year calendar and second read. >> So, moved. >> I have a motion and a second. Any discussion? Seeing none, all those in favor, please say I. I I >> any opposed? >> The chair votes I and the 20 26 2027 calendar is approved. Thank you very much. >> Thank you. >> Thank you for your work on that, Nick. >> And that takes us to our resolution authorizing renewal of the operating levy uh in 2025. Um, I will give everyone some context. We had an in-depth discussion about this um, back in our workshop. I would like to invite Shelby up to the table from Ellers to um, answer any questions or add anything to the discussion um, that wasn't necessarily covered in our workshop agenda. Um so we are now as a school board authorized to renew um an operating levy. Uh our last our current operating levy is coming up for um expiration in 28. we are able to renew it as a board as long as it is identical to um what the voters approved um in 20 it was 2017 I believe um and we decided timing wise as a board that this would be a good time since our community um at 78% of voters um approved our current um the renewal of our current um capital projects levy and we know that Hopkins is very supportive and feel confident in um renewing this current operating levy. Any questions or comments from my board colleague colleagues? >> Chair Andre. >> Yes, Clerk Thompson. >> Um, thank you. Um, just to be kind of clear on the timing, um, I read through the resolution and, um, it it it says that this renewal that we'd be doing tonight would begin for the 10 years beginning in taxes payable 2028. Um, so because I I just want to be sure like we're not shorting ourselves, right? Like if we did this tonight, the 10-year clock would start now, but you know, based on reading how this resolution reads, it you know, it it wouldn't start until the 10 years beginning in 2028. So, so based on that, like what's the thought process between doing this tonight versus, you know, as we have, you know, some time in between now and 2028? just curious on thoughts on that. >> Um well my thought was the the board has gone through a series of educational presentations this current board on this topic and therefore I think it's incumbent upon us to use that education to take action. Um and as I stated we just had an election on an operating renewal. Um, and I think that that speaks to what the community would want us to do. Um, so th that's my thoughts on the timing and also it's well within our our time frame that the legislature laid out for renewing these. I think you have three years before expiration to renew. >> Madam Chair, it's um two begins two years before expiration. the last year. >> Yeah. So, I think we're well within that. >> Chair Andre. >> Yes. >> If I might add, the legislature gaveth and possibly could take away. I mean, I don't know what the implications for that would be, but potentially >> a legislature with a different makeup could. >> Um, Madam Chair, yeah, that's certainly um a consideration. And once the um board adopts this, it would be in place. But certainly they um they put forth this change and they could change it. Um current legislation says that you can renew the board authority each authority one time. So you would have to take this back out to the voters, but with that they could also make a change to the current the current law. >> Think about that. Chair Andre, as we think too about budgeting, knowing that now our the the referendum has passed, um is it also just for for continuity in budgeting for our team's sake, knowing that we have renewed this that the funding is coming and so that we can plan more strategically in terms of our long-term budget. Was that part of the thinking as well? >> I would yeah think so. And it's also um yeah there there will be no changes which I think gives um everyone peace of mind that it's going to be the same. Any other thoughts, questions? Okay, with that I um will look for a motion to um let's see. I would actually look for a motion to wave the reading of the resolution um if if that's something that we would agree to. Otherwise, I will read it out. >> You have a motion so you don't have to read this out to the bitter end. So moved. >> Thank you. There's a motion. Is there a second? >> Second. >> I have a motion and a second to wave the reading of the resolution. All those in favor, please say I. >> Can there be >> Oh, wait. Sorry. Any discussion? >> Yeah. I I'm I'm just curious if legally we need to read the resolution. >> I can read the resolution. >> I I I think it's best to be cautious. Um and I know that it's a lot of reading and I'm sorry about that, but I do have some concerns. >> Be it resolved by the school board of independent school district number 270, Henipin County, Minnesota. the district as follows. Background. It is hereby determined that Minnesota statute section 126 C17 subdivision 9B states that a school board may renew an expiring referendum revenue authorization without an election by adopting a written resolution authorizing the renewal provided that the expiring referendum has not been previously renewed under subdivision 9B. The term of the renewed referendum is no longer than the initial term approved by the voters. The expiring referendum is within the first two fiscal years of the term of the referendum. And the per pupil amount of the renewed referendum is the same as the amount expiring referendum or for an expiring referendum that was adjusted annually by the rate of inflation. The same as the per pupil amount of the expiring referendum. adjusted annually for inflation in the same manner as if the expiring referendum had continued. B. At a duly called and regularly held special election on November 7th, 2017, district voters approved a referendum revenue authorization for a term of 10 years, commencing with taxes payable in 2018. The additional revenue from the referendum revenue authorization has been used to finance school operations. The referendum revenue authorization is scheduled to expire after taxes payable in 2027. On November 18th, 2025, the board convened a regular meeting for the purpose of discussing the proposed renewal of the expiring referendum in accordance subdivision 9B and allowing public testimony on the proposed renewal. The expiring referendum has not been previously renewed under subdivision 9B. Two, authorization of renewal. The board hereby determines and declares that it is necessary and expedient for the district to renew the expiring referendum in the same per pupil amount as is currently in the expiring referendum. The additional revenue from the renewed referendum revenue authorization will be used to finance school operations. The renewed referendum revenue authorization will be applicable for 10 years beginning with taxes payable 2028 unless otherwise revoked or reduced as provided by law. Three, notice of renewed referendum revenue authorization. The clerk is hereby authorized and directed to submit a copy of this resolution to the commissioner of education and the county auditor of each county in which the district is located in whole or in part as soon as practicable but not later than September 1st of the calendar year in which resolution is adopted. [snorts] Four, effective date pursuant to subdivision 9B, this resolution becomes effective 60 days after its adoption. I would look for a motion to approve that resolution. >> So moved. >> I have a motion. Is there a second? >> Second. >> I have a motion and a second. Any discussion? Seeing none, clerk, please call the role. >> Chair Andre, >> I. >> Treasurer Hartland, >> I. >> Director Roer, >> I. Vice Chair Ross >> I. >> Clerk Thompson I. >> Director West Morland >> I. >> Director Xiao >> I. >> The resolution passes unanimously. Thank you all for being part of the discussion. And that takes us to policies in first read. I will turn it over to Vice Chair Ross. Great. Thank you. Uh what we're going to have is eight policies uh that we're presenting to you to this cohort. Uh with these eight particular policies, we have two of them that have noted with changes or sorry three that have change or sorry again four that have changes noted. The rest do not. So out of the eight, you have four that have changes recommended and then four that do not have any recommended changes. So with that, I will hand it over to assistant superintendent Dr. Lightoot. >> Good to be with you again. >> Hello. >> Hello. Uh policies. Uh we'll go through hopefully quickly here this evening the uh list that is in front of you. The first is policy 2011, which is legal status of the school board. As identified, this one is among those with no changes, no um specific modifications recommended from MSBA, part of our three-year review um that we look at when we start to look at uh specific policies. And with that, if there are changes um more than open to questions or anything that the board may wish to address with policy 2011 [snorts] >> doesn't look like it. >> All right, then. If nothing on 2011, we'll move to 208. Um this is our policy on policies. No, maybe that's a pun. I'm not sure. [laughter] Um could it be something? Well, it is a policy. We'll take it. It's meta. >> Um, but with that, there aren't any changes here. Uh, it does keep with the uh um schedule that we have and the process that we have when we look at the board input that comes in through the structure that we have to review and to make modifications and changes. Uh, with that, any questions on 208? All right. Then for those that are grimarians in the group and those that like the uh art of the um writing process, that was all that changed in 211 with any criminal or civil action um that is uh related to any schoolboard member, employee or student. Um the specific policy itself does not have any substance change. It really is more in um the identification of the specific language that is identified within the policy. And as such, if there are questions on 211, I'm more than happy to address any of those that uh the board wishes at this time. All right. Uh 212, school member, schoolboard member development. uh really the professional development aspects of you all as a board. There are no recommended changes to 212. Uh if there are questions on that or anything thereof, happy to address those. All right. Then 603 603 uh we did some specific work in 603 as well as 604. What we identified with 603 and 604 is really adding the um concept of programs so that when we do look at curriculum development in 603 and instructional curriculum in 604 we had the dialogue around um the outlined change that is part of this policy. The change that was noted here intentionally is to look at um the statement where we identify the superintendent or designate shall have discretionary authority to develop programs, guidelines, and directives to implement schoolboard policy relating to curriculum development. Um I don't know if there are any other monitoring committee members that want to speak to that, but that really was the specific change that the committee brought forward for 603. if there are questions on that. >> I don't think so. Thanks. >> All right. 604 um as they are really partner policies. Um 604 we made the same change to reflect that in um language that was consistent with 603. That is the primary change that's part of 604. Um any questions related to that? Chair Andre. >> Yes. >> So I what what is meant by programs? Is there an example? >> Chair Andre. >> Yeah. So an example would be um language immersion program. Tonight we had a conversation around um Chinese immersion preschool um as a program that's of interest to the community certainly aligns with vision 2031. Um and so that in my mind would be the definition of a program under this policy. Um thinking too about the work that we're doing at the high school um that we've all been involved in. Um conversations the visioning some of those those tracks that that would also um qualify as a program. >> Makes sense. Thank you. >> Other questions? Thank you. >> All right. 806. We did some work on the crisis management plan. Um, we did have uh conversations with our uh security and safety coordinator uh Chinu Mua and we also had conversations with our assistant director buildings and grounds um Chino who was here earlier this evening really looking at the any changes that might be necessary within physical plant as well as general process. Um what you do see are a couple things that came forward with that. Um, there was the desire in 806 to identify the procedures and training that we do through the I love you guys platform to be clear with our community on the platform that we use um and very transparent about that for educational purposes. Um, we also looked at a couple clarification elements that are here um that are identified in the language. Uh, we did remove one sentence that really didn't seem to add and might have caused some confusion. And then we also looked at adding um the definition of what an enhanced drill is so that people in looking at the policy can understand why we do that and what that actually means. Um so that was really about the capacity of making sure that the policy could be more forward- facing for the community and its explanation. Uh so with that if there are questions on 806 I can address those as well. >> Sharon Andre. >> Yes. Director Xiao. >> Yes. Hi. Um, I'm just wondering, uh, you know, we we mentioned I love you guys. Um, maybe would there be an appetite to kind of define what that means? Um, because, you know, without context and without, you know, uh, knowing that that's our security framework or instant response framework, uh, does that cause some confusion? [clears throat] >> So, suggestions around what three might look like >> like through I love you guys, which is a, you know, frame. I don't know. I don't know what >> if I if I may. Um I was gonna ask if we could do a hyperlink to their um online >> website so that people who are interested um could look into it more. Their website is actually really good. >> Okay. >> So we can do both. Um we can identify it and then also hyperlink it. [snorts] >> Thank you. Mhm. Got it. We'll bring that back in second read. >> Chair and Drezen. >> Yes. >> Can I ask just a sort of a general question here? I I just kind of noted that our policy compared to MSBA's example policy seems much more brief. >> Is is there reason behind that at all? there is um and part of the conversation and looking at some of the specifics with um what MSBA has put forward, you'll note um that a lot of those um spaces that they have specific language. Some of that specific language is not the exact same language that is part of the I love you guys protocol. Um this is a more generalized protocol um that if you'll look at back to some of the guides that are there in 2011 um some of the notes that are there around some of the other generalized safety plans. Um so this is really kind of more of the what I would say is a framework for those that don't have another framework that they follow. Um and so for ours that's why we identified the I love you guys. And there also is a debate of how much information do we put into [cough and laughter] a policy around specific procedures because part of what we also know and and it's a sad reality but we know that people sometimes look at this material to figure out what it is that we're going to do so that they know what we're going to do before we do it and then they use that information in in a way to harm. So we're mindful of how much information that we do put forward and we try to be mindful in a way that gives the community information but doesn't create any sets of conditions that may create more vulnerability. Um and being trying to be mindful of how we balance that. >> Makes sense. Thank you. >> Mhm. >> I just had a couple of um small um typo changes. Mhm. >> Um so in section two, general statement of policy, um paragraph 2, line two, I think there should be a period after management plan. >> Great. >> And then um in the following paragraph, last line, I think it should read once per school year. Get rid of uh Got it. >> And I will stop being grammatically nerdy now. >> Great. Any others? All right. If if not then 859 U electronic data um there are no recommended changes for that at this time. >> Is it just Oh, it is an annual review. I was like I feel like I see this one all the time [laughter] every year because Yes. >> All right. And then that completes the full slate for this evening. >> Thank you. Um, I would look for um, oh goodness, I'm all lost in policies. Um, I would look for a motion to um approve the above policies in first read. Further, um, the board directs the administration to prepare the policies with suggested revisions for approval in second reading at the next meeting as part of consent. >> So moved. >> I have a motion. Is there a second? >> Second. >> I have a motion and a second. Any discussion? Seeing none, all those in favor, please say I. >> I. I. >> The chair vote. Oh. Any opposed? The chair votes I and policies in first read are approved. Thank you, assistant super. Actually, you get to stay here again. Um [laughter] uh so we will quickly um I would like to open up the the floor before we go into um executive session to any board members who have a board report that they would like to share. We did already go ahead and introduce ourselves earlier in the meeting. So, Chair Andre, >> yes, director West Morland. >> Hi, director Jen West Morland. Still here, she her. Um, and I just um really wanted to give a shout out for everyone who worked on Greece the musical at the high school. It is phenomenal. And my favorite part is seeing how the actors support each other on stage. Um, at one of the performances last weekend, there were a couple understudies who went in and I could just see how like the team on stage was really pulling together and there was just so much support and great camaraderie. Um, and you can see that in the actors when they come off stage and come out to greet their families and their fans too. Um, and for me it's just a representation of what's what Hopkins is all about. Um, excellence. the performances were excellent and then that really strong sense of community and support. So, I encourage you all to see it. Um, as our fantastic student board rep said, it is um happening on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday evening. So, check it out. >> I also highly recommend it. Um, yeah, it is great to see that. I think that that's one of the things that makes it so enjoyable is they're all having so much fun up there. Um, and that speaks volume to the program. And I also did not know this going in, but every part of that production is put on by students from the concessions to the ticket sales to the lighting, the sound, full ownership. Um, which I think is pretty unique. I don't think I had that level of of student participation in my high school production. So, >> kudos >> to who's running that program. It's really really student centered. >> Any other chair? >> Clerk Thompson. >> Uh Kai Thompson, the clerk. Just one thing I just want to say just real quick was as we were recognizing the girls swim team and they had won their section meet and then some of the divers and one of the swimmer had gone to state. I guess that that was the first time in 27 years that they had won the section meets. So, it's just very amazing. >> Amazing. >> That's really good. >> Pretty exciting. >> We have such great students here in Hopkins. >> Exciting. >> Bigger deal. >> Thank you for that. >> They did in their diving. They're like, "Don't ask [laughter] about yourself." >> Thanks for that added context. That's really neat. It's like like our football team like they won their first game and they're doing great this year. Um anyone else? Um cheer on G. I just have a quick roper. >> Um so this Thursday there is going to be a education town hall event um at North High School if folks want to come. It is hosted by um I can't remember who it's hosted by, but I know it's going to be Commissioner Willie Jet is going to be there. um the superintendent of Minneapolis public schools and a school board member will be talking about you know just education and so um North High School starts at 5:30 um and I think the program dinner starts at 5:30 and the program starts at 6:15 so if anyone is interested um that would be a great way to just be in a crowd with education folks and to just learn about where we are education wise as a state >> um what did you say that's Thursday? >> Yep, it's on Thursday. Thanks. >> And it's at North High School in Minneapolis. >> Um I just quickly wanted to mention that we have the MSBA delegate assembly coming up. Um and we have a um resolution um that is up for um consideration. So, I just wanted everyone to know that we will be doing that. And um if you have an interest or want to know what else is on um the agenda for that um it it is supposed to inform and create the MSBA um advocacy platform for the year. Um you can ask myself or Vice Chair Ross. Um we are your delegates and um we'll be getting the really big book. So, if you want any updates or um want some input on that, just let us know. >> What date is that? >> It is December is it 6th? >> Is it virtual? >> Um no, it is at a um the double No, they moved it. Double Tree South. >> I can sure I'll forward you the information. >> Oh, thank you. Okay. instead of why does it make you uncomfortable for me to not know what I'm talking about? [laughter] >> I don't judge people. [gasps and laughter] >> Um yeah, I have to I'll Yeah. Okay. That's all I have. So then um we would um I would look for a motion to um approve the following resolution. It is hereby resolved that the school board of independent school district 270 Hopkins Minnesota meet in executive session to discuss negotiation strategy related to the HA contract for the 202526 and 202627 school years that the meeting be held in person and commence immediately following approval of this resolution. Further that it be noted that all board members, superintendent and clerk were duly notified of intention to call this executive session. >> So moved. >> I have a motion. Is there a second? >> Second. >> I have a motion and a second. Any discussion? Seeing none, all those in favor, please say I. I. >> I. >> Any opposed? The chair votes I. And we are going into executive session.